ã€ŠThe Universe is Innately Justã€‹


 Chapter -1 Cultivation Steps

    I will slowly keep adding new realms the further they are introduced in the novel.

    If you have any question about the cultivation system I''m using, feel free to ask them in the review.

    Each cultivation realms is divided in four steps.

    Early

    Mid

    Late

    Perfect

    Three main ways of cultivation:

    Body: First Realm: Physique Molding

    Soul: First Realm: Will Sharpening

    Energy: First Realm: Qi Condensation

 Chapter 1 A Weird Encounter

    One night, in a narrow street at the slums of New Casablanca, a deafening sound was heard.

    It was as if two hard objects crashed together, like a gun shot towards a metal object.

    There weren''t many people in that street, knowing very well the dangers it brought. The only people who stayed out this late are the ones who looked for a fight.

    It was like this in the slums of New Casablanca.

    Located in the middle of this astonishingly modern city, the slums seemed a little off. Although technology was still present, the place felt a little backwards. It was a grey area where police stay away from, even when this was where crime most prevailed. Here, it was the law of the jungle.

    Simple. Messy.

    But that night, it was different. Hearing such a loud sound in the streets of New Casablanca wasn''t all too common.

    The loud intrusive noise came from a simple fist landing on a body. It happened not too far from a little bar, Pig''s Paw", were Fell Pluck worked.

    Fell was a young rejected boy born in the slums. Up to this day, his life revolved around where he lived and the placed he worked. The rest of New Casablanca was pretty much unknown to him.

    Even though the slums were very dangerous, hardening users were not very common. Most of them avoided making a show of their skills in public. Fell was completely astonished by the scene in front of him. It was the first time he was witnessing hardening.

    Five seconds earlier, darkness had already taken over the sun in the streets of New Casablanca. Fell had just finished his night shift in the bar he works in. The only thing he had in mind was his bed.

    He was still frowning, his stomach was nauseous from all the trash he had to take out, his fragile and frail frame was slowly seen advancing through the dark street.

    His sluggish steps always avoiding the trash on the ground. Unfocused, he didn''t even take a look at the endless sea of tags and graffitis spreading across the dam of steel that formed the street.

    In front of him, three thugs were surrounding a blue haired young man.

    ''They''re acting again like they own the streets.'''', sighed a middle-aged man, his eyes looking way too calm in front of this seemingly normal scene.

    "It''s sad, but that''s how life here in the core works. If you look the slightest bit weak, you''ll get eaten without knowing why.''''

    This kind of scene was all too normal for the inhabitants of the core.

    The young man had a head full of long blue hair cascading on his shoulder, his eyes looking clear and vivid, his eyebrows drawn like a sword, a grin drawing on his clear face.

    One of the thugs tried to sneak his right hand out of his sweater pocket. As his motion continued, you could see a wooden handle following his fingertips.

    A serious expression appeared on the blue-haired man''s face. In a burst of motion full of explosiveness, he took a step in while shifting his weights. His left elbow tensed and bent like a bow in the direction of his side hip. The jab struck right on the thug''s left shoulder and completely shattered it.

    "Arghh!" a sharp and horrifying scream escaped the lips of the aggressor, his left shoulder completely ruined and crippled, leaving him in an intense state of pain.

    He was close to losing consciousness.

    A splash of blood, littered by torn clothes and flesh was just behind his body.

    ''''Hardening!!!'''', screamed one of the old drunkards that endlessly wandered through New Casablanca''s nightlife.

    The crippled thug never imagined that simply by trying to take out his hatchet, the young and frail blue-haired boy would punish him instantly. Not even leaving him the chance to use his weapon.

    In this narrow and dark street, Fell never would have thought that this scene would create a seed in his heart. Deep down Fell Pluck always craved for power, power to change his miserable life.

    Power to finally grab a handle on his destiny.

    As their companion was emitting a horrendous sound, the two other thugs grabbed the crippled body of their brother and started escaping with him. A mix of hate and fear clearly visible on their rough and twisted face.

    ''''They will probably try to take revenge on him'''', thought the young Fell.

    Fell approached the seemingly relaxed man, his back straight and tall like a mountain, a satisfied smile was drawn on his lips. He was weirdly looking at his clenched fist, pondering on unknown subjects.

    "Blue haired brother, you should start running for it, those kinds of scums are well known for their vendetta.", kindly advised Pluck

    "Yeah boy! you should quickly leave this place. those bastards from Darksun Gang will probably come back again! And this time it won''t just be just a random Harry, Tom and Billy."

    Hearing this, the stranger slowly looked at Fell. He held a puzzled look on his face while Fell talked to him.

    He didn''t expect that in such a dangerous area that his family told him not to visit, he would encounter someone with such a clear and honest look.

    ''''I kinda lost my way around those streets, do you mind showing me around?'''' said unhurriedly the blue haired stranger.

 Chapter 2 Baby Cemetery

    Two young men were slowly making their way in one of the most impoverished zones of new Casablanca. After crossing multiple streets and several back alleys, they had arrived to one of the most infamous wastelands of New Casablanca

    To be more precise, this "wasteland" is where most orphans grew up, a place where all the unwanted newborn were dumped. The infamous "Baby Cemetery", built on top of mountains of waste and garbage.

    The Baby Cemetery was the place where New Casablanca''s saddest reality takes place. A piece of land where all the rejected kids grew up. Getting backstabbed for a loaf of bread was all too common.

    This is where Fell Pluck grew up, in the middle of huge garbage piles full of unknown metals and scraps. The starry sky full of chemicals was the first thing his eyes saw, and it was also the last picture he gets to see every night before going to sleep.

    "Give me what she gave you!You think I didn''t notice how that middle-aged woman was looking at you" menacingly said a fourteen-year-old boy.

    "But¡­it''s mine, she gave me these 10 credits to buy myself clothes and some food," said the shy child called Anwar while trying to defend himself, on his face a mask of courage trying to protect his meager gains.

    Scenes like these were way too common for Fell, this was his reality. He remembers that time when a kind woman gave him 20 credits. She kept telling Fell that he looks just like her own son. After sobbing for a few moments, she left him, her face filled with sadness.

    Fell remembered how he got to feast that day, unlike this timid child, he didn''t do the mistake of coming back here with pockets full of money. Here, it was just a way of asking other to steal him.

    He still remembered how he used to get bullied and outnumbered because of his soft features, he grew up in this weird place where childhood was a phase that passed as quickly as the hungover of a drunkard or the high of a drug addict.

    "Place like this really do exist everywhere" pondered the blue haired man.

    "This is just one of the harsh reality of Earth." answered Fell, "What''s your name by the way?"

    "Anzar Massin."

    "Mine is Fell, Fell Pluck, the one who left me here probably knew I would need a lot of courage!", joked Fell. "You should try to avoid the streets for some time, those Darksun bastards are quite the vicious thugs"

    "We are close to my house, you can stay there for a while if you want to."

    "Sure, I have no precise plan right now.", said Anzar, his face full of interest about his surroundings.

    They slowly disappeared in a small alley of the slum, their back slowly getting eaten by the dark. They advanced through several small alleys, accompanied by the sound of fighting and crying.

    A thick smell of rust and blood tainted the air here, the light from the moon that would usually cascade on the street was covered and blocked by a faint toxic mist in the sky.

    After several minutes of walking through the slithering, maze-like paths, they slowly arrived in front of an old dilapidated villa.

    It was a charming villa with an old style of the 1900s, or at least it should have been a charming villa, it was in such a state that one would wonder how it was still standing.

    The old building was on the brink of collapse and no windows were intact. In fact, no glass could be found in the windows. Thugs probably took it all away to make some makeshift sharp weapons.

    But it was still Fell''s Home, the only place where he could close his eyes and completely forget his life.

    "Welcome to my humble house, I may not have much, but at least I know the customs of having a guest" heartily said the young Fell, an innocent and welcoming smile on his face.

    New Casablanca''s core was where most of its outlaws lived, it has a particularly active nightlife. This part of the city was well known for its underworld, a place where crooks, felons, and malefactors roam freely.

    One of the places where they meet each other and interact was the Filthy Jade Palace. Stories say that it was an ancient high-class hotel where important business deals were done negotiated and approved.

    As of now, it was just a festering nest of crime, if you needed something not quite legal, an odd job done, then the Filthy Jade Palace was the place you were looking for. To each problem a solution, Clean or dirty.

    It was in this particularly shady place that a contract was being discussed. In an amber lighted room full of high class furniture, two men were facing each other and discussing the conditions of their deal. Their figures were quite different from those of your usual thug. The two men were some very important members of the underworld.

    One of them was Vicious Zhang, the gang leader of the Darksuns. While the other was the branch leader of 99%, an underworld organization that made its gains by fulfilling assassination contracts.

    99%''s name comes from their high success rate, they rarely failed their work. Fact is, when they do fail, that just means that the person you want dead is simply unkillable.

    "I want that blue haired stranger dead, this vicious bastard didn''t need to incapacitate my subordinate" gnashed the big man Vicious Zhang, his eyes showing a very clear look of anger.

    "We will do the best we can do to satisfy you, my friend. We have been working together for so long, a simple hardening user is no big deal for Nine Nine" calmly responded 99''s branch leader while slowly serving himself a fresh beverage.

    Both men had worked together many times in the past. Vicious Zhang was quite well known for being heavily protective about his subordinates. In this unnaturally dangerous environment, Nine Nine''s service were a must have for Vicious Zhang to accomplish that.

    "I''ll leave this issue in your hands, anyway I have some matter to deal with, the police force are getting more and more active lately, and it''s been making my men uncomfortable" said the big man before leaving the room.

    The branch leader made sure that Vicious Zhang had left the area. He stood up, a smirk slowly appearing on his face.

    "Blue hair... this is big, I need to inform the higher-ups"

    A decisive look appeared on his eyes, he left the room with hurried steps. Closing the door behind his steps, leaving the room bathe in its habitual gloomy shade.

 Chapter 3 Everyone can use Hardening

    New Casablanca''s core, in the maze like Baby Cemetery. Inside of an old villa that survived the ravage of time, two young men were facing each other.

    Those two young males were passionately sharing their story, a deep shine could be found in their eye, they finally felt like they met their equal.

    Weirdly enough, Fell Pluck rarely considered someone as his equal, his birthplace always made him think that he was worth more than the other. The fact that he didn''t turn out like the other kids from the Baby Cemetery birthed a weird feeling of loneliness, loneliness in fighting his destiny.

    As for Anzar, Fell learned that he came from a rich family. A rich family that made him go trough harsh training during his childhood, in some sense both of them never went trough the classic childhood full of joy and innocence.

    One had to fight for a living while the other had to fight for the love of his family.

    This aspect of their life made both of them relate to each other, planting a seed of brotherhood in their heart.

    "Now I understand where your mind blowing strength come from."exclaimed Fell passionately while looking at his newfound brother.

    "That''s nothing much, everyone can learn Hardening."explained Anzar while briskly waving his hand.

    "You mean¡­"

    "Yup, Even you!"said Anzar not even leaving Fell finish his sentence.

    "Th¡­THAT''S GREAT!"Screamed Fell with a voice full of explosive excitement.

    "But you need to do it correctly, I can teach you while I''m still on Earth."

    "When do we start."Hurriedly responded Fell, feeling as if his golden opportunity was gonna fly away.

    "Time doesn''t press, we''ll start tomorrow, it''s getting late."replied Anzar while getting up, he slowly made his way to the least shabby couch to spend his night leaving Fell where he was.

    In front of him, a broken window gave him a large view on the city. New Casablanca was really beautiful in the dark, be it its core or its modern district.

    Fell kept looking at the tainted starry sky, his eye full of excitement for tomorrow, he was one step closer to his goal of controlling his life and getting stronger was the straightest path to his objective.

    After some time staring at the sky, he finally managed to brush of his excitement and slowly fell in Morpheus''s arms.

    That night, be it the fact that he needed energy for tomorrow or that his powerful friend was close by. Fell rarely got to enjoy such a tranquil sleep, he was more used to drowsing or napping till the first light of the day.

    Several hour later, the sun started slowly making his way in the sky. Fell started feeling a hot tingle on his skin, without even having to open his eye, he knew it was time to get up.

    He slowly made his way out of his sleeping place, and groggily looked for water and food in his backpack.

    After eating some bread and hydrating himself, he started moving outside looking for Anzar, the nearer he got to the outside, the clearer he started hearing some noise.

    It was Anzar, working out in the first light of the day, he was standing in the middle of the villa''s courtyard. In Fell''s view, the blue haired man was doing some breathing exercise followed by shadow boxing.

    "Must be a morning routine"he tough while pondering on the complexity of the moves Anzar was making.

    Anzar was taking deep and powerful breath, the sound he made when exhaling was similar to a snake hissing.

    Fell noticed that everytime Anzar started exhaling, a weird pattern was appearing on his muscle. His muscle fibers were contracting at a strange rythm, his arms were making powerful and straight motions.

    Fell lost himself in his toughs, still looking at Anzar''s perfomance. His moves were strangely similar to a cannon being shot, while at some other time it would be as soft and flexible as an elastic.

    Anzar kept switching between hard and direct motion to soft and abstruse gesture, sometime taking the speed of execution up a notch while other time being as slow as a snail.

    This scene continued to escalate till Anzar made the final motion, a weird mix between soft and hard that beautifully finished his training.

    All this may sound like it was just a few breath, but Anzar''s morning routine took him 10 minute to finish.

    "Amazing"said Fell while passing a somewhat clean towel to his friend.

    "What you just saw now is the first thing I''m gonna teach you, this set of movement will make you build a for cultivation as solid as Earth itself"

    "Oh!It must be a secret technique passed down in your family"responded fell while cracking a joke.

    Anzar lost his composure during a very brief instant, but this went unnoticed by the young Fell.

    "Come, come I will first explain to you what cultivation mean for us"

    "Cultivation? Weren''t you supposed to teach me hardening?"asked Fell his face full of doubt.

    "Hardening is just the first step of cultivation, and it''s just one of the multitude of path you can take"explained Anzar

    Anzar went on and explained the basic of cultivation to Fell, he first told him that there was three main way of getting stronger. The first one consisted on cultivating the Body.

    Cultivating the Body''s main goal was to make the cultivator''s body a living weapon, be it internally or externally. The cultivator needed to slowly clean off every impurity found in their body, transforming their physique while choosing between two road. To harden the body and make it the most indestructible shield possible, or to soften it and go down the opposite other extreme.

    Both road were equal, one was focused on making the Body the strongest material possible. While the other path takes the opposite road, tempering the Body to achieve peak flexibility generating an incredible amount of strenght throught the tensility of the cultivator''s physique.

    "First we will focus on your body, now choose which path do you wanna unravel?"

    "Do you wanna go down the way of the unbreakable as big and towering as a moutain?"

    "Or do you wanna go down the way of the sea, vast and all encompassing?"asked Anzar, a deep abstruse shine in eyes.

 Chapter 4 Choice

    Fell Pluck rarely got to choose his own path, he in fact never had the choice to choose between two things. Anzar''s question put him in a weird state of mind, his feelings were conflicted as he was experiencing his first internal struggle.

    Lost in thoughts, an intense frown appearing on his face. His face clearly showing the internal struggle he was living, both paths looking grand in his eye.

    Anzar was patiently looking at this strange scene, he was honestly interested in Fell''s answer and decided not to give him any advice. In the end, it was Fell''s first choice is his path as a cultivator and his answer will define the direction of his future progress.

    Fell kept weighing the pros and cons of both paths, losing himself in an ocean of thoughts. His doubt continued for some time until he started shaking, the furrow in his eyebrow finally disappearing.

    Finally, he looked directly at Anzar''s eye; His eye shining and focused.

    "I choose both!" said Fell with an unparalleled momentum, "It''s either I take the path of the strongest and live through it or I die while trying to accomplish it."

    The blue haired men started trembling, a smile defined on his face.

    "That''s my brother" proudly assessed Anzar, "But get ready to pass through fire and water, training in both Hardness and Softness is the elite way, don''t forget that you missed the optimal training period of your life"

    "Prepare yourself, starting today you will be living in Hell"

    "I WAS BORN IN HELL" screamed Fell on top of his lung.

    He was ready, ready to change his life and finally become the master of his destiny.

    "As I said before, the first step is to focus on your body, starting today you will start a hellish physical training" assured Anzar with a confident look on his face, "give me one week and your body will reach its peak athletic form!".

    And that''s how Fell Pluck''s training began, his mornings started with a set of foundational breathing technique. Finally learning how difficult it was to coordinate both breathing and motion, his first session leaving him with a bitter taste.

    His first training session made him sigh, finally knowing that he wasn''t a genius from those fantasy web novels that the citizens outside the slum read.

    Although Fell was discouraged, he knew that he couldn''t afford to focus on this defeat. Following his failure, he immediately started focusing on his breathing all the time.

    This didn''t go unnoticed by the experienced Anzar, "This guy really caught it quickly, he understood the main difficulty of the foundational moves and already started preparing for success" he tough with a small smirk on his face.

    Following the Foundational set of moves, Anzar made Fell go through a variety of set of exercise that made him feel like his muscles were gonna break.

    Hopefully every time Fell was on the brink of collapse, Anzar would come and start slapping several parts of Fell''s body. This weird act would make Fell feel like his friend was molding and stretching his body as if it was Nuwa creating the first human with mud.

    This unusual sensation wasn''t particularly loved by Fell who kept screaming on top of his lung, his pain was clearly expressed on his innocent face.

    But his scream soon came to a stop when Fell noticed that the more Anzar used this technique, the more he was feeling like his body was supposed to exist in that state.

    His body was clearly becoming more and more attuned to nature, all those small impurities his genes developed were slowly cleaned away by Anzar''s hand.

    Coming to this conclusion, Fell couldn''t let his brother''s effort go to waste. He started gritting his teeth and bearing the pain, his pride couldn''t let him lose himself to pain.

    Anzar''s act of slapping Fell had two purposes, to prevent Fell''s body from breaking and to clean all the impurity found in it.

    The young earthling didn''t know that if he tried following this training program without Anzar''s help, his body wouldn''t have handled the huge amount of stress generated by it.

    Following the strength training, Anzar made Fell run. And by running, he meant running to the brink of collapse, making Fell run till his throat and lungs felt on fire.

    Fell always thought he was a good runner, be it endurance or sprint. Growing up in a dangerous environment running was the weapon of choice of the powerless, making him cherish this particular skill that saved his life countless time.

    But Anzar''s training regime made him doubt his skills, he was asked to run 1 kilometer while sprinting at his maximum followed by 30 seconds of a set of breathing exercise.

    Anzar told him to repeat it again and again and again.

    He kept running and running, whenever he fell on the ground his cloth sticking to his frail body, his breathing as hazardous as it could be.

    Anzar would come and strangely apply pressure on Fell''s diaphragm.

    This act would make Fell recover his breath much faster, strangely after the strength training, he didn''t feel any pain from running that much. It was only his lungs and diaphragm that weren''t used to such high intensity work, needing much more time to recover than his muscles.

    After strength and endurance training, Fell finally learned what was the worst, Anzar made Fell go through a series of stretches.

    This series of stretches, unlike the ones that every sportsman do was made of a variety of moves that made Fell feel like his tendons and muscles were tearing apart.

    After the morning routine, Fell would just stay on the ground focused on catching his breath while Anzar would go out to look for food. The Young Lord from the Massin was really doing his best in assisting his friend, he who always had someone to attend for his needs was going as far as to go get for his tired Brother.

    Fell was particularly happy about this aspect of training, he ate a variety of food so diverse that everytime he grabbed his old cutlery; It was an exciting and fresh experience for his taste bud''s

    "Look at you again, wolfing down on food like it''s the last meal of your life," noticed Anzar while eating unhurriedly.

    "I''me nemer eaten sometinm so goodm" responded Fell while grabbing the last piece of a tender chicken breast.

    "You really are quite the savage" frowned Anzar.

    And it''s in this weird mix of brotherhood and master-disciple relationship that the week went on, everyday Fell would focus on his breathing and follow every single task his brother gave him.

    He was feeling himself progress in a way much faster than he thought, this caused him to give his all during every single breath of the day.

    He was fighting, fighting himself, fighting the world, fighting destiny.

    In the blink of an eye, the week went on.

    In that seemingly ordinary courtyard, two young men were facing each other.

    One of them with a head full of blue hair, a physique full of powerful and stripped muscles. He had what they called in the military, the leopard physique.

    He wasn''t bulky but his small frame was showing that he was capable of exerting his full strength in a single moment of explosiveness, his eyes full of pride were looking at the result in front of him.

    The other was a black-haired young man, even if not as physically imposing as his counterpart. He had a healthy tone on his skin and his muscle showed that he was an athletic young man.

    The black-haired man clenched his fist, looked at the sky and unleashed the biggest howl he could manage. A shockwave of excitement spread through the usually dead Baby Cemetery, making everyone who heard it wonder what that lucky bastard won.

    The black-haired man was Fell.

    Like Anzar promised, he made Fell go through a complete metamorphose in a week.

 Chapter 5 Boundless Universe

    Anzar waited for Fell to slowly brush off his excitement, he then started explaining the bigger world Fell was gonna enter.

    "We cultivator follow the same goal as every other life form in the universe, our main goal is to live longer, our longevity increases each time we breakthrough to the next realm and we get one step closer to turning into a stronger life form."

    "So¡­ immortality isn''t a myth?" a rare expression of innocence appeared in Fell''s gaze, he already started imagining himself dressed like those immortal Daoist from those old web novels

    "It was never a myth, Earth already had some cultivator in its past history, every space civilization attains that milestone in their evolution and human were no exception to this rule." Patiently explained Anzar

    Fell started trembling when he heard this truth, a deep yearning started appearing in his eye while he asked with a voice full of passion.

    "So this is my goal, I will become a cultivator!"

    "Last week was just to make your body attain its peak human state, now what you need to do is to step into the first realm of cultivation, your first goal as a cultivator is to accomplish Hardening, and it is done by cultivating the body." Anzar was started sharing his knowledge with Fell, a serious expression marked his face.

    "Now the next step for you is to become what you call here a hardening user, hardening is the power accessible for those who attain the first realm of body refining, also called Physique Molding, the method used on Earth is by taking a drug developed from the knowledge they acquired from their entry into the Universal Pillar, the goal of that pill is to make you break the limit of the human body, not even achieving half a step into the first realm".

    "I will leave you with a true pill made from by Family pharmacist, the difference between them is like Heaven and Earth, make good use of it."

    Hearing this, Fell''s face started showing a weird hue. He was clenching his teeth so hard that they seem like they were gonna break, a harsh and forced sound escaped from his lips.

    "I can''t accept this gift, I already owe you too much Brother Anzar!"

    "Then get stronger fast and help me to repay this small debt!" the blue haired man explained while brushing the matter about his family pill like it was nothing.

    "I will!" growled Fell while trembling, the man in front of him just caused a paradigm shift in his life.

    After giving the medicine, Anzar started to explain the world where they lived.

    "This boundless universe is full of advanced civilization, all type of sentient lifeform that climbed the stairway of evolution and managed to reign supreme on their planet''s environment."

    In the beginning, although meeting a cultivator from another planet wasn''t a rarity.Prolonged contact between civilization was nonexistent, It all changed the day where the Heaven Ascension Court started.

    In the beginning, it was just a place where cultivator went to trade knowledge and treasure. It slowly took another path, some cultivator not having enough treasures or insights about cultivation; Finally started trading technologies and knowledge from their planet, this act made the Heaven Ascension Court go down a different path.

    A group of Galaxy trampling cultivator called the Forefather started accumulating all the diverse knowledge from the vast and diverse race that got birthed in the universe, their only goal to make the boundless universe a prospering haven for all the different civilization.

    To accomplish this humongous goal, they started building a huge library and recorded every single knowledge they acquired.

    The seemingly empty universe began showing much more life, new civilizations were discovered every time a cultivator got in touch with Heaven Ascension Court.

    With time the Heaven Ascension Court wasn''t just a place where cultivator interacted with other but also a place where civilizations were acknowledged, this was also the case for Earth.

    An intergalactic civilization was slowly birthed, and the seemingly boundless and obscure universe turned into a much livelier place where contact between planets and race is easy.

    Planets were colonized and the universe where life was a rarity became a thing of the past, a new age began.

    Hearing all this, Fell was lost in his thoughts. Never would he have thought that he lived in such a vast world, his reality was experiencing a paradigm shift.

    A deep frown was expressing his mixed feeling, he was in the end only a frog in a well and today he finally understood that there was much more to learn and discover.

    Sighting, his eyebrow started relaxing. Fell was always good at accepting reality and for the first time of his life, he was yearning for this reality.

    Without waiting for his friend to finish thinking, Anzar announced with a serious look in his eye.

    "Now I need to leave, I have matter to attend, I will leave you with some learning material, be serious with your training and you will accomplish your goals."

    "So this is where our road separate Brother Anzar..." responded the young Earthling still lost in his thoughts.

    "You shouldn''t have that look in your eyes after this week, we will meet again if we''re destined Brother Fell!"

    "You''re right, take care of yourself!" A sharp glimpse forming in his eyes making a stark contrast with his honest Face.

    The training not only affected Fell''s physique but also his thoughts, those last day passed with Anzar confirmed Fell''s future path in his life. Anzar was the shining star that collided with him, completely shifting his destiny from its original mediocrity.

    "This small object is called a space container, it exists in a lot of forms and its main purpose is for stocking object in it, inside you will find what you need for your cultivation." Anzar handed a Black neckless to Fell while explaining.

    The neckless looked like normal jewelry except for its core, its core was composed of a shining azure colored crystal. Fell''s heart started racing at the thought of owning something so beautiful, a deep blush appeared on his face before grabbing the treasure as fast as he could.

    Anzar laughed at his Brother''s act in his mind.

    After accepting the object Fell noticed that in the middle of the crystal, flashes of lights were whirling and forming a perfect spin, still lost in thought he asked.

    "Are you leaving now?"

    "Yes, I need to depart right now, I left too many matters unchecked," explained Anzar whit a shrug, "Take care of yourself and focus on your cultivation."

    Finishing his sentence, Anzar applied some strength on the earth with his feet and completely vanished from his Friend''s sight.

    Still lost in his thoughts, Fell started making his way to his house before sitting in a random spot. His new treasure still clenched hard in his hands, his small frame slowly disappearing in the darkness of the night.

 Chapter 6 Spatial Treasure

    That night Fell didn''t sleep, in fact, he didn''t even move since Anzar''s departure. He spent the night thinking and processing everything he just lived, he was preparing himself to finally tackle life. He needed to carefully plan what his next steps were going to be, using all his cards to free himself from the shackles he was born with.

    His train of thoughts kept flowing until he remembered something important, Anzar left him with what he called a Space Container, the fascinating object completely absorbed Fell from his brooding.

    The excitement when receiving the object came back like the flood of a river. Slowly taking a firm grasp of the treasure, he started taking a good look at it.

    The jewelry''s handcraft was exquisite, giving Fell the impression that he had a family heirloom in his hand.Dreamy blue lights were making their way out of the unblemished crystal that was perfectly laid down in the middle of the necklace, giving the people who saw it the impression that it was a divine object.

    Fell kept fiddling with the treasure, taking his time to analyze every scrap of its surface. He slowly came to find the origin of that dreamy blue light, focusing his eyesight on it he was astonished by his discovery.

    There in the middle of the crystal, specks of lights were gently making a revolution. This strange principle of gravity was strangely being reproduced in the middle of the jewel, Fell was left pondering on this discovery.

    He also found an inscription chiseled in the material, the carving clearly representing a drop of blood. Not even waiting to finish his investigation, Fell quickly grabbed a needle and pricked the surface of his skin. A drop of blood slowly made it''s way out of his bloodstream and gently fell on the crystal like dew on the tip of a leaf.

    Not long after their contact, a weird reaction started happening. The normally dreamy blue light changed to a crimson red light, the color wasn''t the only change. The slow and gentle rotation started to slowly spin faster and faster attaining a lighting speed.

    Fell was completely mesmerized by the scene, The speed of rotation and the red light coming out of the jewelry piece was getting more and more intense. He started noticing that the Space Container was getting more and more weightless until it gently started floating a few inches from his hands.

    A blinding light flashed through Fell''s old villa, illuminating every single piece of the ancient architecture. A few breaths later, Fell finally managed to get his eyesight back. His eyes were seen looking left and right, panic began to appear on his face.

    ''Where is it!!'' screamed the young man in his mind, ''Objects don''t just disappear like that''

    Panic stricken and fearful of having lost his friends gift, he started checking his body to notice if there was some change. Noticing that nothing really changed, disappointed and bitter he face palmed himself and felt something weird in between of his eyebrows.

    There in the middle of his eyebrows, a seemingly unnoticeable unblemished pearl could be seen. The minuteness of the crystal was so little that it could be taken for a mole.

    Understanding what just happened, Fell was left amazed by the nature of the object.

    ''Now, how do I check its content'', following this thought a massive influx of information started flooding Fell''s brain, making him feel like his brain was gonna explode. The pain left as quickly as it came leaving Fell with a slight headache, new knowledge marvelously appearing in his head.

    The new information was quickly analyzed by Fell. With just a thought from his brain, he could now know what exactly was inside the Space Container and according to the knowledge he gained. He could also take them out without any issue.

    Excited to test his discovery, he quickly decided to take out a black looking crystal from his spatial treasure. A dark and spotless crystal quickly appeared in front of him, soon followed by a string of giggling. Fell started taking out one item after the other, putting them out after carefully checking them.

    He soon finished doing the full inventory of his possession. In his spatial treasure, Fell found 3 Crystal and what looked like some cultivation manual and resource. Those weird resources were oddities that Fell never got to see, strange pills and marvelous looking plant were floating in his personal space.

    Putting back all the cultivation resources, he started fiddling with the three strange crystals. They all had the same squarish form and gave an otherworldly feeling to the individual having the chance to look at them.

    Fell kept the spotless Black Crystal and quickly put the rest in his spatial pocket. Not finding any inscription on it, he quickly tried putting it in contact with the crystal in the middle of his eyebrows. The same flood of information quickly shut down every single thought of his followed by clear sentences that flashed in his head.

    ''CULTIVATE THE BODY TO THE PINNACLE! ACQUIRE POWER THAT TOPPLES MOUTAIN''S AND SEA''S!''

    ''MOLD THE BODY! BREAK THE FIRST SHACKLES OF MORTALITY''

    ''TEMPER THE BODY! BREAK THE SECOND SHACKLES OF MORTALITY''

    ''CLEANSE THE BODY! BREAK THE THIRD SHACKLES OF MORTALITY''

    Following those sentences, Fell received a gigantic amount of knowledge. His brain similar to a small stream being flooded by torrential rains, his brain sending him intense pain signals. Gritting his teeth and bearing the pain wasn''t even an option, he started rolling on the floor howling like a mad dog and gasping trying to ease his agony.

    Hopefully for Fell, his burning spasm soon came to a stop. Eyes bloodshot and vein bulging on his usually innocent face, he gradually started gaining back his lucidity. Panic clearly engraved in his bloody eyes.

    ''Fortunately, Anzar already made me acquire quite the pain tolerance'' thanked Fell

    This hardship reaffirmed the truth that Fell always believed in, that there is no free meal in this world. Quickly catching his breath, he started assessing the knowledge he just received.

    He quickly came to the conclusion that Body Cultivation was the simplest, no weird diagram or complex cultivation method was found. Cultivation of the Body was by far the simplest of them all,the only downside it has was the tremendous amount of pain and resources it used. Worst is the longer you go down that road the harder it gets, consuming an astonishing amount of cultivation in the later Realms.

    ''Thank god I choose the black crystal!'' ruminated Fell while shivering. The thought that he could have used one of the two other Crystal leaving him fearful of the consequence.

    According to the knowledge he got, ascending the first Realm of Body Cultivation was done by taking a huge amount of Energy and use it to start molding the Body, this seemingly easy step was by far the most difficult to accomplish. Pills that could help you do a full breakthrough the Physique Molding Step were rare and cost a lot of money, hopefully, Anzar took that in detail and left Fell with a plethora of Pills.

    Looking inside his space pocket, he quickly found a small book that interested him. The manual''s cover was made out of a strange purple leather and in middle of the cover, two words were written.

    ''Pill Almanac'' read Fell, ''this is what I need! time to study!''

    Quickly flipping one page after the other, he soon came to a stop. He found it, the pill he needed was described right in the middle of a worn page of the Pill Almanac!

 Chapter 7 New Dawn

    Impurity Cleansing Pill, in the multitude of pills that were recorded in the Pill Almanac, this pill was the one Fell needed most.

    Its main purpose was to cleanse the body of its consumer, cleansing him from all the impurities that had built up over the course of an individual''s life. This pill was one of the few rare pills that even mortals can consume, its mild properties making it perfect for everyone.

    To aspiring cultivators, it represented something else. This pill was the key to attaining The Physique Molding Realm. When consuming it, their main goal was to use one hundred percent of its medicinal properties and use it to breakthrough the first Shackle of life.

    Fell quickly found the Impurity Cleansing Pill in his spatial pocket. Excited, he took it out and started to passionately observe the marvelous capsule. Anzar''s Impurity Cleansing Pill was round and shiny, the surface of the pill was glistening in the dark and the first thought Fell had when seeing it was to gulp it.

    Forcing himself to calm down, he sat cross-legged on the irregular floor and closed his eyes. Fell''s respiration soon was slow and deep, his breaths were long and potent.

    A few minutes of meditation went by, Fell slowly opened his eyes. An impressive resolve could be seen in his eyes, his momentum couldn''t be higher.

    "It''s now or never!" loudly spoke Fell as if to make the last bit of doubt disappear from his heart.

    Following his cry of resolve, he quickly threw the Pill in his mouth and closed his eyes. As soon as The Impurity Cleansing Pill went in contact with his tongue, it quickly dissolved into a stream of potent energy that quickly made its way through all his body parts. Fell soon discovered that like the description he read in the Pill Almanac, the Impurity Cleansing Pill'' mild properties were getting absorbed by his athletic body. He could feel his physique improve after every single second, his breathing was turning more and more powerful, making the dust scatter through the room.

    Fell''s body was similar to a desert facing a torrential rain, it was absorbing every single nutrient that made contact with it. His body acting like a sponge and completely assimilating every single bit energy it touched.

    His pores were opening up, Fell rarely felt so clear headed. A weird pungent and acrid smell appeared, followed by massive amounts of sticky black substances that got evacuated from his pores. Fell felt the change in his body and understood that he was on the right track, forcing himself to calm his joy, he kept slowly absorbing all the medicinal energy coming out of the pill.

    All the impurities that formed during his last seventeen year of life were getting cleansed. His hidden past injuries healed, he could feel himself getting stronger and coming closer and closer to the First Shackle of life.

    Soon the mild properties of the Pill came to a stop.

    ''This shouldn''t be happening! I''m so close to achieving my first step in cultivation!'' cried Fell in his heart.

    Following the stop of the mild influx coming from the Impurity Cleansing Pill, a second more potent and aggressive energy started flowing through all Fell''s body. This aggressive and hard energy left Fell trembling everytime it made contact with his body, he was feeling like a train was wrecking the inside of his body.

    ''I was wrong this isn''t an Impurity Cleansing Pill! this is intensity is at least a second grade Pill!'' concluded Fell, ''I need to quickly take care of it or I will surely die!''

    Fell''s body was getting bombarded by the heavy influx of energy coming from the Pill, every second of inaction was another part of his body wasted. A red substance soon replaced the originally dark impurity. That was Fell''s blood!

    This moment Fell took a decision that completely changed his path of cultivation. Not even trying to slow the energy coming from the Pill, Fell took out the real Impurity Cleansing Pill from his spatial pocket and quickly threw it in his mouth.

    This insane act may look like a suicide, but Fell completely decided to go for broke. Either he would ascend this trial and live or he would die in a magnificent explosion.

    His wrecked body was continuously trembling, his veins were bulging like worms under his skins. His teeth already broken from clenching his jaw, he was on the brink of losing consciousness.

    As soon as the true Impurity Cleansing Pill was consumed by Fell, his body turned into a fighting field for the two Pills. One of them completely destroying his body while the other constantly fixing it.

    This cycle kept repeating endlessly, sounds of bone breaking and internal organs mashed could be heard. Unfortunately Fell mind''s kept floating in the brink of collapse. Even with all of Anzar''s preparation, he wasn''t ready to shoulder so much pain.

    The only reason he could survive this long was due to his unwavering desire to live!

    The cycle repeats itself through the course of the night. Every single second, Fell was close to dying due to the two energy fighting inside his body. The second grade Pill''s goal was to completely destroy every single bit of his body, the Impurity Cleansing Pill acted like a seasoned healer saving him every time he thought he was done for.

    But in the end, this wasn''t just a disastrous act. There is only a line that divides fortune and misfortune, it all depended on Fell which side of the coin he was gonna get.

    In the middle of all this inner war, Fell''s body was still surviving. Every single cycle it survived resulted in new body parts that were harder and softer, the strength of his body was approaching a state that even Anzar didn''t expect Fell to attain.

    This endless cycle of destroying and rebirth continued through the entirety of the night until dawn arrived.

    New Casablanca''s slums, in a seemingly old villa that had better days. A blood red sculpture was seen in the middle of the entrance, it was Fell.

    Fell''s blood solidified and completely encompassed him, forming what may look like a blood red sculpture.

    The first light of dawn soon started illuminating the street of New Casablanca, Fell''s villa wasn''t an exception and the first beam of light also made its way in the ancient building.

    That beam of light hit directly where Fell was sitting, a few seconds passed and the statue started to crack from a few places, pieces of solidified bloodmaking their way to the ground. As the piece kept falling, fair skin could be seen under the solidified blood. The fair skin had a slight gold hue and looked extremely supple and elastic like a newborn, it''s golden color also gave off a powerful and dominating feel to whoever saw it.

    Finally, every piece of solid blood fell from his juvenile face. His eyes opened, two beam of light erupting from them completely overpowering the light coming from the sun.

    He slowly got up, a large amount of solidified blood fell from his body. Clenching his fist and taking a step in towards the exit, the ground beneath his feet cracked from his excessive use of strength. Seeing this, a smile started appearing on his face soon followed by a burst of proud clear laughter.

    Betting with his life on the line, he succeeded!

 Chapter 8 Gladiators Heaven

    A few minutes after ending his first cultivation session, Fell finished testing out his strength. To his astonishment, he was in the Physique Molding Stage, not just the Early part of the stage. He directly skipped all the Early Physique Molding Stage and was only a single line away from the Mid Physique Molding Stage.

    This achievement was only accomplished due to the huge risk he took. If known through the cultivation world, digesting a second grade Pill while still being a mortal would have set huge waves making him well known as a genius.

    But this incredible achievement was done on an unknown planet that had just joined the Heaven Ascension Step!

    Freshly showered and dressed with a clean set of clothes, Fell finally went out for the first time in a long period.

    He was completely transformed, be it physically or mentally. Anzar''s influence on Fell was much bigger than what the Massin Young Lord expected, Fell having passed the biggest calamity in his life.

    A black-clothed young man was making his way through the dead Baby Cemetery, he had a head full of short black hair, his skin was fair with a slight golden hue and he possessed a countenance that people from around here weren''t used to see. But this same black clothed young man was making his way through the maze-like Baby Cemetery with such ease that he would leave every inhabitant of the slums speechless.

    This black-clothed man was Fell. He was going in the direction of his old workplace, Pig''s Paw the place where everything began. Pig''s Paw was the only bar in New Casablanca''s that accepted to hire those born in the Baby Cemetery, Fell could still remember that look of contempt everyone would throw at him when he was looking for a job.

    But the Boss of Pig''s Paw wasn''t like the rest. Behind his mask of Moha the Butcherer, he was just an honest uncle trying to live. Doing his best to live a fulfilling life in an inhuman environment.

    Moha was one of the few people that Fell genuinely liked in New Casablanca, making him feel the need to at least tell him that he was quitting his work there.

    A few roadblocks and back alleys later, Fell finally arrived at Pig''s Paw. Sighing, he leisurly made his way through the same dim street that changed his life, fresh graffities and scribblings lit up by the fluorescent neon lights flashing from the multitude of shop''s banners.

    this seemingly normal place existing foverer in his heart.

    Softly opening the door of the bar, Fell checked the inside of the store. It was still too early in the morning, the only customers left were those comatose drunkards that lost to alcohol. Behind the counter, a big man still cleaning last night''s jugs, completely oblivious to the newcomer.

    Fell naturally approached the counter and saluted while waving his hand.

    "Hey Old pal!"

    "Call me like that one more time and I''ll throw you outside kiddo" grumbled the big man inside his beard, not even checking who was talking to him.

    "Oh..", Smirked Fell "You don''t even recognize your favorite Baby Cemetery inhabitant"

    Hearing this, the old man finally looked at his interlocutor and surprise quickly spread on his face.

    "FELL! I THOUGHT YOU HAD DIED!" screamed the big old man, his act resembling a backward country mother meeting her lost child.

    "How did you change like this, last time I saw you, you were just scrawny shitty kid from the slums", said moha with an intrigued look in his eyes, "Look at you, you look like a healthy young master from the big cities" he continued while fiddling with his beard.

    "So tell me how did you manage to change this much in a week" Moha finally finishing his countless interrogations.

    Not answering him, Fell decided that the better option was just to straight up show him. He approached a table and gently slapped the top of it, Moha looked at the scene in front of him still playing with his beard.

    A soft noise spread through the Bar, soon followed by the sound of a table crashing on the floor. Fell''s simple act of slapping the table completely exploded it, leaving behind only a mess of wood scraps and planks.

    "Hardening!!!!", screamed the old man completely speechless by the scene in front of him, "Since when are you a hardening user Boy!!"

    "Not too long, I spent the last week training" explained Fell with a smile.

    "One week? Stop joking, this isn''t something you can learn in a week, are you¡­", Moha stopped in the middle of his sentence not sure if he could use that word.

    ''Genius? This isn''t genius, those guys from the big cities are geniuses, they have the best resources, the best teachers and even they use much more time to learn Hardening.'' Fear started stirring in his heart following Moha''s train of thought, ''This kid is a complete monster!''

    "Anyway did you just come here to ruin my tables?" Moha already calmed down, his long life full of experience helping him stomach the oddity in front of his eyes.

    "I came to tell you that I quit! I sincerely thank you for all those years you''ve taken care of me!" finishing his sentence with a deep bow in the direction of his Old Boss

    "Oh, I kinda expected it when I saw your little trick earlier, what else do you need?"

    "I need a place where I can fight! I need to accumulate enough combat experience! Any idea on where I should go?" fighting intent clearly visible on his juvenile face.

    "I know exactly where you need to go, wait for me I''ll close the shop, it''s a close friend who''s in charge there." Moha grabbed his trenchcoat and keys, then quickly closed the shop leaving behind the old drunkard in their drowsy lethargic state.

    Thirty minutes later, Fell and Moha were in front of a strange looking building. In front of their eyes laid a cheap replica of the Coliseum, on top of the main door two words could be seen "Gladiator''s H aven". Fell noticed that a strange space was empty between the letters, probably not worth the manager''s attention.

    "Let''s go inside, this place is run by an old friend of mine" entered Moha not even checking if Fell was following his steps.

    Gladiator''s Heaven''s inside was similar to the roman''s famous Coliseum, the only downside of this replica was that it was cheaply made. If a decent architect came here he would have probably wondered if it was built based on the doodle of a child, weird metal plates and exceedingly misshapen column had the hard job of being the foundation of this twisted construct.

    Fell really didn''t know whether to laugh or cry when put in front of this monstrosity.

    Moving closer to one of the column, Fell put his hand on the column and gently applied some pressure. Shock soon appeared on his face, even with his newly found strength he couldn''t make this crippled column move.

    Calming down, a smile appeared in his face.

    ''This is indeed the place I need''

    Looking around, he quickly found where Old Moha was. The old man was again making a scene.

    He was screaming and howling in front of another man, weirdly enough the other man was also doing the same. This comical scene leaving Fell completely speechless.

    A few minutes later, Moha came back with a satisfied look on his face. Behind him, the eccentric old man was looking at Fell with a weird shine, his look similar to a master jeweler who just spotted a rough diamond chunk.

    Fell was sure, this was the old friend that Old Moha kept talking about.

    "Indeed, a lot of potentials, are you sure you want to put him in the elite rank?" asked the eccentric old man, "I mean he has potential, but he could also die in his first fight!"

    Old Moha looked at Fell, showing him that he was the one who had the final say on the matter.

    "What''s the highest rank?" said fell a grin on his youthful face, an unyielding resolve showing in his dark amber eyes

 Chapter 9 Explosive Entrance

    A deep frown appeared on the manager''s face, it wasn''t the first time someone cockily tried to skip ranks. To ask for the highest rank was either a sign of dementia or excessive cockiness.

    "Elite rank is already full of Hardening User" blurted the eccentric old man, "It''s also one of the highest rank available in Gladiator''s Heaven, falling just behind the Master Rank!"

    Gladiator''s Heaven''s ranking system had three different steps. Mortal, Elite, and Master. Those three ranks served as a way to make matchmaking easier, the first Mortal Ranker not even capable of taking a hit from the worst Elite. This huge difference was explained by a simple fact, Mortal Rankers were not capable of executing Hardening. They might have more or better fighting experience than Elite but their chances of winning cease the moment they have to face Hardening.

    "If it was me, I would have put you in the Mortal Rank, starting from the bottom and gradually fighting your way to the top! Giving you the best foundation possible." Explained the manager.

    "It''s not really a possibility for him anymore" blurted Moha, not bothering to hide the pride in his eyes, "Fell, show him!"

    Hearing that Moha wanted him to show his talent, Fell leisurely took a step in. Shifting his weight from one side of his body to the other, the image of Anzar''s first use of Hardening still fresh in his mind. His elbow drawing to his hip like a bow, his muscles relaxing and turning softer with less consistency than a liquid, a relaxed expression appeared on his juvenile face. Everything changed the moment he finished taking his step, Fell''s extreme state of relaxation immediately changed and turned into a huge wave of muscles contractions, followed by a fist flashing in the air.

    -Snap-, everyone in the Gladiator''s Heaven main entrance heard that sound, it was similar to a bamboo log splitting in half.

    "Interesting, magnificent use of Hardening, hiding it till it burst the last moment" an obscene look appearing in the manager''s eyes, excited to see how this new challenger will fare against his best fighters.

    "You are definitely qualified for the Elite Rank, as for the Master Rank, I''m only a little manager that runs this branch of Gladiator''s Heaven, I don''t have a say on the advancement of fighters" explained the old man, "But¡­ I can put you against the stronger Elites!"

    "When can you fight?"

    "Is it possible now?" asked Fell, excited to finally put what he learned to practice.

    "Let me go check if there is an empty spot in today''s schedule!" turning back, the eccentric old man started running to his office, he was preparing Fell''s debut as if it was his own, Fell could swear that he even saw the man shiver with excitement as he searched through his computer.

    "FOUND IT!" running back as fast he went, his eyes shining from the excitement of having a new contender for his fighters.

    "You have thirty minutes before your fight, follow me I''ll show you around!" taking Fell by the arm, his powerful grip clenching around Fell''s arm like a snake coiling around his prey.

    The passionate manager showed Fell around, he began with the spotlight of the Coliseum. A spacious fighting arena appeared in front of Fell''s eyes, a smell of rust and blood hitting his nose. The floor was full of sand mixed with sharps fragments of teeth''s and nails, fighting intent mixing with the atmosphere as if it was oxygen. Fell was sure of himself, this place gave birth to an incredible amount of martial artists.

    Following the arena, they went around and did a complete tour of the Coliseum, moving from the training grounds full of muscular and youthful men lifting barbells and howling like mad beasts to the calm cafeteria, where the only noise was the sound of people wolfing down on food.

    Fell quickly came to like the atmosphere, he saw something that he rarely got to notice in New Casablanca, pure honest passion. To Fell who rarely enjoyed the company of others, Gladiator''s Heaven started having another appeal than just fighting.

    The group quickly followed their tour, passing from the empty barrack to the checkroom where fighters could meditate and focus themselves before their fight.

    "Rest here young man, you still have 10 minutes before your fight, don''t disappoint us for your grand debut"

    "Good luck with your first fight Fell!"

    While leaving, both of the old men''s faces were full of expectation, in their eyes Fell was a rough diamond that needed some cutting and polishing before shining like the brightest jewel.

    Alone in the peaceful room, Fell changed his clothes, wearing some purple shorts Moha gave him and sat cross-legged. Calming his nerves, he quickly attained a meditative state where only the fight mattered. Fighting intent was gradually forming in his mind, he wanted to prove to everyone that he changed, proving to the entire world that even he, who was born in the worst place, can accomplish something in his life.

    A buzzing sound put him out of his meditative stance, his eyes flashed in the dimly lighted room. Leisurely getting up he left the room with quiet steps.

    He calmly arrived in the fighting arena, the same smell of rust and blood hitting his nose. His eyes were calm and focused but deep within them, fighting intent was hidden, ready to explode. He was in the same state as gunpowder, only needing a single spark to burst into a shining explosion.

    Completely oblivious to the fact that the arena was full of spectators, Fell maintained his unhurried stride, his eyes completely focused on the person in front of him.

    "Oh, a newcomer, lucky me!" the man in front of him had a big frame, his thick muscles were similar to those of a gorilla, his skin was roughly comparable to a beast''s hide, Fell was sure that a knife couldn''t cut deep into it.

    Not responding, Fell waited for the signal that announced the start of the fight. He kept looking at his opponent, his calm eyes focused in front of him, his hand opened and relaxed. In an outsiders view, Fell was acting way too calm, the way he saw his opponent was similar to a random guy in the street.

    "I''ll change that look in your face kiddo, I''m sure you''ll be frightened when I''ll fi¡­-DRINNNNNNNG- " started taunting the gorilla-sized man before being cut by the alarm.

    A light flashed through the arena, closely followed by the sound of a car crash and sand blowing in the air.

    "WHAT HAPPENED!!!" Screamed a spectator

    "I didn''t get time to see any movement!"

    "I can''t see anything because of the sand"

    A few breaths later, the sand-storm started fading, showing two opposite shapes close to the wall. Fell was the first person to be seen, he was still standing on his feet, his back was straight and his chest was puffed out. In front of him, the gorilla-sized man was completely embedded on the wall.

    "The newcomer won??"

    "SHOW US WHAT HAPPENED"

    "YEAH, WE PAID, WE DESERVE TO SEE EVERYTHING!"

    Fell action caused a huge reaction from the audience, the spectators howling and screaming wanting to see what caused the match to end so early. Their screams soon came to a stop as soon as a gigantic screen appeared in the middle, broadcasting a replay that showed them what happened.

    As soon as the ding was heard by Fell''s ear, his body started moving on its own. Like a steam train, his extreme state of relaxation completely changed to action, his opponent not having the time to even see him move. First were his toes that applied pressure on the earth, followed by his ankle and knees, all of his joints moved one after the other, linking and creating a powerful kinetic chain that made him reach his top speed instantly from a standing position.

    Fell still didn''t name this dash, it was just him using all of his body''s capability to move as fast as possible from a standing position. What he didn''t expect was the result, he gave his all but his opponent didn''t expect to take a human-sized bullet shot, their contact was similar to two trains crashing, all of his accumulated momentum delivered with a huge blast.

    The result was seen by all, the gorilla-sized man was overpowered by Fell''s monstrous strength and immediately went cold when the two made contact.

    "Rough diamond?" blurted the manager, still shocked by what he saw "He''s a complete monster!"

    "Completely agreed. Now pay me what you just lost, remember our bet old fart?", Moha''s laughter spread like waves, happiness from seeing his protege shine but mostly from having conned his old friend, "I told you old fart! Elite rank might not be enough to satisfy his thirst!"

    Following the record, a huge uproar spread in the spectator seats, it was their first time seeing someone move so fast, no flashy technique was seen, only pure brute strength. Like a meteorite from outer space, Fell crashed on the Coliseum and completely stole the spotlight.

 Chapter 10 Chain Winning

    The commotion in the arena continued, the spectators were unsatisfied. Their craving for violence and spectacular fights being kindled by Fell.

    Sifiso worked all his life in this Coliseum, gradually climbing from the bottom to his current position of manager. During his life, he had the occasion to see an uncountable number of martial artist, all with their own individual skills. But today, what happened in front of his experienced eyes was a rarity, Fell Pluck''s first match left him with a sense of d¨¦j¨¤-vu.

    His eyes started to flash with reminiscence, Blood red hair flowing through the arena. It was three years ago, he came with a single goal, to beat every single martial art practitioner. He left as fast as he came, leaving behind him mountains of wasted fighters.

    ''To think I''ll compare him to that madman'' shivered Sifiso

    "Old fart, I think Fell still wanna fight" noticed Moha "take a look at his eyes, that gorilla retard wasn''t even enough to fill the space between his teeth"

    "Then let''s keep sending them one after the other, I want to see where he lies among the elites!" added Sifiso before ordering his assistant to cancel all the other fights.

    Fell was still in the middle of the arena, his focus making him completely oblivious to what was happening in his surroundings. He was hungry, his first fight having awakened something deep inside him. He wasn''t showing any sign of leaving the arena, sitting down on the sand, he closed his eyes. Waiting for his next prey to come.

    Sifiso didn''t make Fell wait, another fighter soon stepped into the old arena. His steps made the whole arena slightly tremble from the pressure he applied with his feet.

    Fell gently got up. His respiration was steady, his moves were relaxed. Putting himself in the Massin Martial Art stance, he was showing everyone that he was ready.

    In front of him, a lanky man was sizing him. Ural was surprised when the staff told him that his opponent was changed at the last minute, it was even a young man. Taking the example from Fell, he immediately put himself in a fighting stance, ready to fight at any moment.

    The Bell soon resounded through the arena, showing everyone that the spectacle was about to start.

    Not waiting for his opponent to make the first move, Fell instantly dashed forward lessening the distance between the two fighters.

    ''Oh, quite the speedster'' thought Ural, raising his eyebrows in interest.

    The distance between them was instantly lessened. their eyesight crossing in a moment, no word was needed. Fell swiftly threw a straight, his opponent following the dance. Two fists clashing in the middle of the old arena, the impact raising clouds of sand around them.

    Following their first contact, a flurry of fists followed. Fell was pounding at his opponent''s guard, while the other calmly responded with fists of his own, both fighters testing each other''s Hardening. Their exchange swiftly escalating from fist to leg, both opponent using their all to trade blows.

    Fell was losing himself to the pleasure of fighting, for the first time in his life, he was enjoying each hit, each fist, each kick he received. His body cultivation made his defense ridiculously high, his opponent''s blows leaving him only slight shocks. He was using his opponent as a stepping stone, stealing every single ounce of experience Ural had.

    In the beginning, Ural wasn''t having too much trouble. Except for the slight pain his opponent''s fist inflicted to his bones, it was obvious that he was new to fighting. Similar to a beast, his intention was fully shown, making it easier for him to trade blows. But as the fight kept advancing, he started having further trouble anticipating his opponent moves.

    ''Fuck, he''s learning in the middle of our fight'', thought the lanky fighter while shivering, ''I need to end this soon''

    Using one of Fell''s hit to create distance, he hastily pulled the strongest Hardening he could manage, his fist reddening from the pressure. A serious expression in his eyes, he was betting everything on a single blow.

    Seeing his opponent react this way, Fell did the same. He took a step back and prepared himself, ready to unleash his strongest blow in a single motion.

    Time turned into a standstill. The air around them turning heavy, making even the spectators suffocate.

    Ural made the first move, screaming, pressure making him throw the strongest punch he ever threw in his life. Fell copied him, his ankle, hip, and shoulder rotating. He unleashed a deadly straight.

    Both fists made contact for the last time, a sound of fracture accompanying it. Urel''s fist wasn''t hard enough to shoulder the pressure coming from Fell''s blow.

    An uproar spread through the arena, chaos, and turmoil birthed from the fight, making the earth tremble.

    "He did it again!!"

    "Where did he come from??!!"

    "Who is this kid?!"

    Ural hastily left the arena under the public howls, his hand fractured and Mangled. But his heart was satisfied. Even though he lost to Fell''s progress, he still improved himself and reaped some gains from that fight.

    Fell remained in the middle of the arena, he was recovering while waiting for his next opponent. That day, Fell kept repeating the same process, he fought ten completely different opponents. Each time using the same strategy, he would use the same amount of strength as his opponents, gradually learning from them.

    Sometimes he would get surprised by an opponent''s technique and would get trashed around for a minute, but he would always bid his time, learn from his foe and make a comeback that left the spectators roaring.

    "He''s using them all as his stepping stone, that''s my boy!" proudly laughed Moha

    "Moha you old traitor, why did you make this demon come to my place!" shivered Sifiso, fear marked his eyes.

    "This child really isn''t simple. When he came the arena, he was a complete novice. But look at him now, do you think his moves are those of a novice? He''s using baits and feints, toying around with the Elite Rank fighters!"

    Fell Pluck''s achievement gave birth to a legend in the Gladiator''s Heaven, the chain winning novice who trashed the elite rank in a single day!

 Chapter 11 sMassin Martial Arts Breakthrough

    How Fell used his body started to take a toll on him, every single breath he took made him feel like his lungs were on fire. His sluggish steps showing everyone that he gave his all during his fights. Respectful silence followed the young man''s exhausted walk.

    An applaud birthed in the middle of the spectators'' seats. Like a viral outbreak, it swiftly escalated and soon every single individual was cheering for the young challenger. Tonight, he gave them all the spectacle they deserved, showing everyone the birth of an exceptional martial art genius.

    Hearing the commotion surrounding him. Fell''s heart rate sped up, he was excited from being the center of attention, a feeling that he rarely got to get.

    In the baby cemetery where he grew up, being in the spotlight was rarely favorable. He spent his earlier stages of life trying to go unnoticed, avoiding problems. Making himself as little as possible.

    Unhurried in his steps, he shamelessly savored his first taste of glory. His habitual indulgent grin appearing on his juvenile face.

    He proudly stopped in front of Moha and Sifiso, his puffed chest showing his delight.

    "Others would have started showing disdain, but look at him, he waited all his life for this kind of approval" whispered Moha to Sifiso

    "Let him enjoy this moment, he deserves it" sighed Sifiso, then he added while looking at Fell "You hid your skills quite deeply, where did you learn to fight like that?"

    "Tonight was my first fight"

    "WHAT?" screamed Sifiso while putting his hand on his chest, anticipating a seizure from the shock he just received.

    "You''re a complete beginner¡­ AND YOU JUST BULLIED MY FIGHTERS"

    "Monster¡­ You''re even worse than that Red Haired man", he looked at his old friend Moha before continuing, "Where did you find this guy?"

    Moha started revealing Fell''s story, his eyes showing the pride he had for this abandoned seed of society. His deep voice turning soft and fragile, showing the deep affection he had for Fell. Sifiso was shocked to learn that the exceptional genius in front of him was from low birth.

    Hearing the story, he sighed and patted Fell''s shoulder.

    "Your life isn''t defined by your starting point, keep pushing and someday you''ll acquire everything you want!"

    "Yes!" firmly responded Fell. His respect for this eccentric senior slowly germinating in his heart.

    "Starting today, you can live here. You are one of us!" added Sifiso, a deep gleam in his eyes. "Now Let''s go feast!"

    Sifiso ordered his assistant to prepare a big feast, using everything he owned to show Fell that he was one of them.

    All of the trainees and fighters were present, celebrating New Casablanca''s freshly born genius. That night, Fell couldn''t remember how much he ate or drank. Every time Sifiso would introduce him to someone, it meant another glass that had to be emptied for Fell. Soon the only things he could hear were the sounds of brotherhood and fellowship. Gladiator''s Heaven martial artists were easy going, most of them had recognized Fell''s astonishing talent.

    "Brothers! Tonight, we DRINK!" said one of the gladiator while emptying his enormous glass full of beer

    "Cheers!!"

    Having emptied a ridiculous amount of alcohol beverage, Fell was drunk for the first time. Satisfied from fighting to his fill, and happy from being recognized by all. He enjoyed his tipsy state and emptied his heart, feasting and drinking with his new brothers.

    Late in the night, the party was still going. Except, all fighters from the Mortal Rank were already dead drunk, leaving behind only those Hardening users. Having trained their body to a point where alcohol wasn''t too toxic for them.

    Fell excused himself before leaving the party, eclipsing himself from the drinking contest they started.

    Staggering thought the ugly construct, he made his way to the room Sifiso gave him. The barracks soon appearing in front of his dazed eyes.

    Finding his room, he quickly threw himself in his bed. His body tired but his mind satisfied, he swiftly fell into a deep sleep.

    The sun gradually appeared in the sky, slowly washing New Casablanca shady night. Fell woke up during dawn, he was particularly refreshed from last night''s sleep.

    He left his room and found a calm spot near the barrack. Fell started his cultivation, he began with the Massin Family martial art.

    Standing under a tree, he gradually fell into a focused state. Repeating the stances one after the other, he started forgetting everything.

    His arms were rotating like windmills, his leg stomps left a deep footprint on the solid earth. He soon fell in a trance, his only thoughts revolved around the soft and hard moves.

    Some stances made him as slow as a snail while others were so fast that weird shadow appeared around him, giving the impression to others that he had more than just two arms.

    Lost in his training, he didn''t even notice the ridiculous amount of sweat his body was evacuating. His back was drenched, and a huge puddle assembled under his steps.

    He was using all of last night''s gains to better himself, repeating the stances over and over. He started making changes to the stance, some of the moves that felt awkward were gradually being changed.

    He was changing the Massin Family martial art, making it more suitable for his own fighting style. Gradually a transformation started happening. His eyebrows were relaxed, his moves flowing like water.

    He even added some of his own moves into the stances. His legs stomping savagely on the ground, his back muscles squirming under his shirt. He was tapping into his body''s potential, unearthing all the accumulation coming from his training with Anzar.

    His muscles soon started moving, gently contracting in a peculiar rhythm. His veins were squirming, giving off the impression that he had thousands of worms under his skin. Taking excessively deep and powerful long breaths, his lungs turning the air around him into a vacuum. He exhaled and punched in front of him, shaking off huge amounts of sweat on the earth.

    Lost in his inspiration, he slowly started breaking through his martial art technique. The Massin Family martial art''s low success was just a single line away, only needing a single step to achieve it.

    He stayed in the same state for an unknown period, his comprehension of martial art lacking only a little bit to achieve a breakthrough.

    Before long, he threw his last punch. It was a straight, the same one he used against Ural. Taking a step in, imitating an exceptionally fast rotation from his ankle. All of his joints synchronizing and linking all of his muscles strength, he mixed the concept of hard and soft coming from the Massin Clan martial art into this punch.

    An incredible change happened, feeling as if thousands of joints were added to his body. Fell swiftly linking every single one of them with a rotation, before unleashing a devastating straight in front of him.

    His fist disappeared, ending his training. Half a breath later, the sound of an explosion came from Fell''s body. He had truly made a breakthrough; his punch was so fast it broke the sound barrier, achieving sonic speed!

 Chapter 12 A Blade Resembles Its Owner

    Fell gradually came out of his epiphany. Noticing that his surroundings were oddly calm, he looked around him.

    Surrounding him, a group of gladiators with gawked eyes. In the middle of them was a stiffened Sifiso, his eyes were gaping out of their orbits.

    Calming himself, he quickly asked with a shaky voice.

    "Where did you learn this martial art?"

    His question catching the interest of everyone. A deep shine representing jealousy appeared in some gladiators'' eyes, a gulp resonating throughout the quiet courtyard.

    Noticing the awkward vibe, Sifiso added with a cough.

    "Come, today you need to choose a weapon." Turning around, he left with a fast pace trying to lessen the trouble for young Fell.

    Fell hastily followed him, leaving behind a group of stunned Gladiators.

    "Did you see that punch" his voice quivering.

    "Yeah, it was so fast! My body is still shivering from the excitement"

    The gladiators all practiced martial art to some extent, seeing such an impressive act left them shocked. Most of them reassessing Fell in their heart, putting it in a higher pedestal.

    "Let''s get back to training boys" added an Elite Rank gladiator, "If that kid can do it, we can also do it"

    Youthful passion soon spread through the originally calm courtyard. With hearts full of motivation and ambition, the gladiators resumed their morning training session. Manly howls and barks resounding through the courtyard.

    Fell caught up to Sifiso and asked him with an interested tone.

    "Why do I need a weapon?"

    "Starting master rank, melee weapons are authorized in the arena." Explained Sifiso

    "Isn''t it too dangerous?" asked Fell with a doubtful voice.

    "Most fighters of the Master Rank are cultivators. To die in an arena battle isn''t improbable, but it''s very uncommon" looking deep in Fell''s eyes he added, "But you already know that. As a cultivator, you know your own body''s survivability".

    Fell stopped in his track, surprised that Sifiso would have access to knowledge about cultivators. Calming himself he reassessed the man in his heart, seeing him in a different light.

    Fell stopped for a minute. He was surprised that Sifiso would have so much knowledge about cultivators. He quietly changed the view he had on that man, seeing him in a different light.

    "Where are we going to find a melee weapon?" asked Fell

    "We have a stockpile here in the gladiators'' arena, the weapons there are quite old. But you''ll probably find something that''ll suit your taste."

    Fell resumed his walk, a fast-paced strut showing his impatience. He was already dreaming and thinking about the thousand different weapons he could use.

    Soon they arrived in front of an old hut. The walls were full of rust, giving off the impression to whoever saw it that it survived through the ravage of time.

    Sifiso quickly approached the door, taking out a set of keys from his pocket. He unlocked it and entered after nodding to Fell.

    Fell neared the small hut, a powerful metallic smell hitting his nose. He entered the old building and disappeared inside it.

    A small yelp escaped from his mouth as soon as he entered, shocked by the multitude of item plastered on the walls.

    Hundreds of old weapons, showing the diverse history of human civilization. Swords, Hammers, Lances. They came in myriads of forms but all weapons had a common function: they were designed to kill.

    Fell''s face flushed from his excitement. His blood coursed through his veins, awakened by the intent coming from the cold weapons.

    He started hopping through the large room, touching every single killing item. Having no precise knowledge on how to choose a weapon, he was touching them all. Feeling their curves, the chips on their blade, their history. Fell was using the most primitive way of choice, intuition.

    Sifiso calmly watched Fell dabble in the middle of humanity''s history, patiently waiting for his junior to come ask him for advice.

    Fell swiftly made a tour of all the weapons. A frown appeared in his face, deep in thought. He noticed a problem, all of the weapons were way too light for him.

    Ever since he started cultivating his body, his muscles attained an inhuman level. For Fell, Bench pressing a ton or two wasn''t really a problem.

    With this fact into account, most of the weapons here felt weightless in Fell''s hand. He grabbed a titanic Warhammer, swung it around then sighed before putting it back.

    Noticing this, Sifiso asked.

    "Tell me now, are the weapon here not suiting your tastes?"

    "They are. The only problem is that they''re too light¡­" said Fell while looking up with hands raised in the sky as if saddened by his faith

    "I should have remembered how much of a monster you are" laughed Sifiso not knowing if he wanted to laugh at Fell''s action or cry because of his inhuman strength.

    "Follow me, there are some special weapons in the back." He added before going to the deepest part of the weaponry room.

    Sifiso opened an old wooden compartment, clouds of dust and mold escaping from it. He gently lifted a long wooden case while trembling, gritting his teeth due to exerting his utmost strength.

    He gently put on top of a solid table made of metal. Blew on it, making the dust that accumulated on the case fly around the room.

    Opening the box, he took two steps back and proudly looked at Fell.

    Fell approached the old case and looked inside. Inside of it, a long one-handed sword.

    The Sword overall length was one meter and twenty centimeters. The sword handle was close to twenty centimeters, it was made from a black metal that Fell never saw.

    Taking the Sword in his hand, he slowly took the blade out of its wooden scabbard. The Sword''s blade was a two-edged weapon, its edges shining in the somber room. The blade length was close to one hundred centimeters and it had a ridiculous thickness of 10 mm in the middle of the blade. It''s thickness drastically reducing as it neared the tip where it was only 3 mm making it a sharp killing weapon.

    Feeling the weight of the weapon, a satisfied grin appeared on his face.

    "That''s the weapon! Does it have a name?"

    "Soldier''s Fortune!"

    "Good name!" said Fell while sheathing his new weapon in its scabbard.

    Soldier''s Fortune weighted close to one hundred kilograms, making it hardly usable by Mortals. Most of the Master Rank practitioner preferred using custom made weapons. It ended up here accumulating dust over time.

    Satisfied and happy to have acquired a weapon that suited his taste, Fell went to clean himself from his early training session and went to his room in the gladiator''s barracks.

    Remembering that he still didn''t check the content of the other Crystal in his Spatial Pocket, he hastily took it out.

    Sitting cross-legged in his bed, in front him two Crystals. One of them was white while the other was a deep blue, their color softly illuminating Fell''s dim lighted room.

    ''Time to suffer again'' he thought with a sarcastic grin. The memory of him using the Black crystal still fresh in his mind.

 Chapter 13 Sharp Mind, Crystal Clear

    Fell shook his head to clear his mind from his past trauma. He brought the White crystal close to the middle of his eyebrows. That was the spot where his spatial pocket was hidden.

    He took a deep breath, forced his determination and put the White crystal on his skin.

    A flash of light appeared in the room, followed by a muffled groan. Fell was trembling on his bed, cultivation knowledge inscribing on his brain. He could feel as they were skewering through his skull, fiercely making their way to his cerebrum.

    He was clenching his fists so hard that his nails were piercing his palms. His blood vessels could be seen squirming under his skins, making whoever saw them think they were worms.

    The intense pain was accompanied by a large influx of information. Fell felt like his head was gonna burst.

    Clenching his teeth, he tried to bear the pain and focused on the information he was receiving.

    He could feel lines inscribing in his mind, burning him through the process.

    ''SOUL CULTIVATION! ONE WILL TO CONTROL YOURSELF!''

    ''SOUL CULTIVATION! ONE WILL TO CONTROL OTHERS!''

    ''SOUL CULTIVATION! ONE WILL TO CONTROL THE WORLD!''

    Coming along those three sentences, vast knowledge about souls started appearing in his mind.

    Soul Cultivation''s first step, also called Will Sharpening, focused on grinding the cultivator''s mind. Gradually taking out all of its impurities, making the cultivator''s soul spotless.

    During every individual''s life, their will would gradually change over the course of time. Every single experience shaping their soul, making them who they are.

    Soul Cultivation''s main goal was to make the cultivator conscious about who he really is, making him develop his truest persona. It would result in him being able to see his soul as if it was tangible in front of him. The clearer the soul, the better the understanding about himself and his place in the world.

    Most mortals don''t develop a persona for a single reason, their mind being too tainted by their pasts experience.

    To put it in a simpler word, to develop a persona you needed two things. First, you needed to know your true self, understanding that every single action one does is on purpose, be it conscious or subconscious.

    Second, you needed to gradually polish your will, making it possible for your persona to take form.

    Fell''s expression eased, his trembling stopped. The knowledge transfer ended, making the bone wrecking pain cease. His eyes were still closed, his respiration cycles gradually became longer. Progressively, the duration of every single one of his inhalations and exhalations reached their respective peaks.

    If someone saw Fell in this state, he would have thought he was dead. His body truly looked lifeless, no movement at all. In fact, there was movement, but his breaths were so long, it was barely noticeable.

    Fell wasn''t dead, he entered a deep state of meditation. His body energy consumption was shortened, making him need less oxygen.

    In this deep meditative state, Fell was thinking about his life. He was using his new found knowledge to find his true self.

    His life flashed through his brain, images, moments and sceneries appearing one after the other. His life was harsh but simple, his only goal was to survive.

    From the moment when he opened his eyes for the first time, to his first battle in the Baby Cemeteries. The past seventeen years of his life clearly recreated in his own mind.

    He could see himself running through the maze-like Baby Cemetery, he could feel how his lungs ached with a burning feeling.

    Scenes of him getting beaten up in dark alleys, he could feel everything, even the burning will to live that he had shown that day could be clearly felt like he was experiencing it for the first time. It was as if he had to feel every year, every day and every minute of his past. Each and every fight, all of his wounds and the pain related to them. He was reliving it all in a few moments.

    Since his life wasn''t that long, he experienced his whole life for another time. Seventeen years old might not be long, but Fell''s life was filled with harsh struggle. Making him cherish every single day that he managed to survive.

    A question appeared in his mind.

    ''Who am I?''

    ''You are a reject, an unwanted seed of society, something that was shoved in the filthy streets, you are nothing!'' a deep snarling voice resounded in his mind

    What Fell was experiencing was pretty common during a cultivators life. All of his doubts, his fears, his weakness, he had to face them all.

    Scenes of his worst moments were shown to him, endlessly repeating in his mind. He was in a state where his mind was stuck in a loop, in a hopelessly vicious cycle. His mental demons were striking at him, trying to bewitch him out of his path.

    ''No!'' he firmly rejected.

    Every few moments, Fell was hearing loud but fading sounds of fiends screaming in his ears. It felt like an undead creature was being tortured, letting a horrifying blood-curling shriek escape.

    What Fell was experiencing was his first Soul cultivation session. To enter the Will Sharpening stage, a cultivator needed to fight his own fears, clearing his doubts and cleaning the impurities in his Soul.

    Except that Fell''s first Soul cultivation session was an exception. Most cultivators would need a special Pill to make their internal demons appear, that was caused by the fact that most cultivators didn''t live enough setbacks.

    But for Fell, having already experienced the bitterness and harshness of life, he didn''t need to use a Bewitching Pill to put himself in that state.

    ''No!'' he repeated.

    ''No! No! No! No!'' every time the voice in his head would try to make him drown in his pasts pain, he would firmly reject it.

    ''You are nothing, you are destined to live as a reject of society!''

    ''No! I¡­ AM FELL PLUCK!'' a crack resounded in his head, his internal demons breaking like a mirror.

    The screams he was hearing slowly started to feel like they didn''t exist.

    As soon as he heard the sound of glass breaking in his mind as if a layer of illusion no longer existed for him.

    Fell felt free, his newly unfettered mind was gradually resurfacing.

    Fell finally opened his eyes. Eyes that weren''t those of a seventeen years old, striking calmness was found deep inside them.

    If a normal person looked at Fell''s eyes, they would feel an imposing momentum coming from them.

    That was pure confidence. Confidence about himself, confidence about his skills, but most importantly. Confidence to defy destiny itself.

    Getting up from his bed, he left his dim lighted room and went outside.

    In the sky, the Moon could be seen hanging there. It was bathing the Earth with its soft moonlight.

    Fell enjoyed the quiet scenery, watching the celestial stars shine in the dark. After polishing his soul, he felt a rare feeling of peace inside him.

    Today''s cultivation session made him confront his past. He was even more certain about his Path.

    Taking a deep breath, he unsheathed Soldier''s Fortune. Inspiration taking him, he gently slashed with his blade.

    A beautiful shine similar to moonlight appeared on the edge of his sword, gently illuminating his surroundings.

    In a flash of inspiration, Fell Pluck''s first sword move appeared. Moon Above was created.

 Chapter 14 Sun lit, Moon influenced

    In the middle of the empty courtyard in the barracks, flashes of light could be seen randomly appearing.

    Ever since the moment he achieved his first move Moon Above, Fell kept repeating it, endlessly trying to get a clear grasp on it.

    His training continued until he noticed that he was drenched from his own sweat. Exhausted from all the training he did, he hurriedly went to clean himself.

    Refreshed from the shower he just took, the rejuvenated young boy quickly fell in deep sleep.

    In his dreams, milky moonlight accompanied his sword moves, repeating in his subconscious as if it was a tape. His mind could clearly not get off his swordsmanship.

    During the same night. Close to a black market situated in Fold Street, was a well-maintained mansion. Even though this crowded street, riddled with homeless creeps sleeping on cardboard, the mansion was disturbingly bright and clean. This building was the headquarters of Darksun.

    The comfortable bandit group was living like pseudo bourgeoisie. Feeding on their prostitution ring and their drug-dealing business.

    Vicious Zhang was in the middle of a fit of rage, he was savagely scolding his underling. His fuming eyes were bulging out of their orbits. He was shaking from anger trying to control himself to avoid hitting the idiots in front of him.

    Ever since his attempt at meeting Anzar, he never heard anything about him. Neither from highly successful Nine-Nine nor his stupid but obedient underling.

    "B¡­Boss, we''ve been looking through the street for days." Argued a short-faced man, his teeth were clacking from fear.

    "We never saw him again" added another lackey

    "What about that bastard from the Baby Cemetery you told me about" asked Vicious Zhang with eyes gorged with blood, he was again losing control, his lustful killing intent awakening.

    "B- Both of them disappeared ever since that day" trembled the short-faced man, he was feeling that today wasn''t his lucky day, their boss'' urge to kill was resurfacing.

    "Get your asses out there and find whoever is related to them!" howled the man while pounding the table with his thick fists.

    "Yes Boss!" carrying out Vicious Zhang''s order, they swiftly left the room with long strides similar to running, their backs drenched from cold perspiration.

    Vicious Zhang was left alone. Grabbing his coat, He hastily left his manor. Accompanied with two underlings, he wanted to let off steam, one way or another. This meant a poor innocent guy was going to get beaten to death for.

    The night gradually died, announcing the start of a new day.

    Fell steadily woke up from his sweet dreams. After dreaming about it the whole night, he was finally gonna have an opportunity to use his new weapon.

    He dressed in a black martial artist uniform, left the room to start his day with his usual morning routine. Finishing his morning practice of the Massin Martial Art, he left with a fast pace in the direction of the cafeteria. Last night practice already left him with a starving stomach.

    He barged through the cafeteria door and wolfed down on the buffet, leaving many fighters bewildered. Many of them shivering when they heard the sound of Fell chewing chicken bones, crunchy sound resounding in the eating place.

    "You don''t even go easy on food." Said Sifiso who just stepped through the door, noticing the bizarrely quiet cafeteria.

    "What?" asked Fell, not understanding the impact he was inflicting to the spectators.

    "Prepare yourself, your fight begin soon." He left the place, not bothering himself with Fell''s reaction.

    Fell promptly finished his meal, wolfing down on the plate in front of him as if he never got to eat in his life.

    Then, he left in the direction of the arena while staggering, his hand was on his belly and a burp escaped from it after every few steps he took.

    He arrived at his restroom and digested his colossal breakfast. He sat down and initiated his breathing technique. His breaths were deep and the time between each cycle was lengthy, soon the food he just ate started transforming into energy, his enzymes worked at an astonishing speed, breaking down what he had devoured. Soon he quickly transformed every single bit of food in his stomach into a stream of pure energy.

    Feeling himself wake up, he quickly got up and started warming his joints, followed by deep muscle stretches. He was using a variety of moves and stances to get himself ready to fight.

    His eyes were calm, a cold serenity rested in them. Hidden under it was a burning determination, he was readying himself physically and mentally. Intense fighting intent was slowly taking form under his tranquillity, he was eager to test his sword skills.

    Before long, he heard a loud knock on his room''s door. He didn''t need much more to understand what he had to do. It was time. He firmly took his sword in his hand and left his room with big strides. One destination in mind: the arena.

    His steps resounded in the passageway, the bright light from the arena was hitting the ground in front of him. He finally got the enjoy the same view, the round battleground unraveled in front of his eyes. An excitement shiver running through him, his eyes shined.

    He entered the arena, in front of him was a man in his thirties. His steps were full of confidence and in his hand was a long red spear.

    They stopped their march at the same time, leaving between them a distance of ten steps. Both cultivators were inspecting each other. Fell was looking at his opponent weapon with innocent round eyes, his opponent was also intrigued by his opponent young age.

    -Ding- the bell instantly opened the fight.

    His opponent impulsively took the first step. His right hand instantly sped to his hip before instantly reversing into a thrust in the direction of Fell''s heart. His move was rather simple, but if it lands, it''s deadly. Fell reacted quickly and unsheathed his sword, slapping his opponent''s thrust at the same time.

    He applied pressure with his foot and plunged his sword forward, his opponent''s throat as a goal.

    Surprised that his perfect thrust was so easily parried by the youth in front of him, the experienced warrior quickly threw himself to the right, avoiding Fell''s swing.

    Distancing himself from Fell, the superuser put himself into a safe spot. Using his weapon range to his advantage, he started poking Fell with a barrage of thrusts making him step back.

    Fell swiftly rushed back, advancing with a striking momentum. His blade firmly grasped in his hand, long streak of moonlight arose from its edges. A sea of spear thrusts in front of him.

    He slashed with his absolute strength, using every single ounce of energy to accomplish Moon Above. His slash cut through the barrage of thrusts and threw his opponent off balance.

    Taking advantage of his opponent opening, he stomped on the ground spreading clouds of sand. His opponent hastily corrected himself and swiped with his spear trying to give himself more time. Fell slashed another time unleashing his sword move Moon Above, his slash passed through his opponent spear before hitting his torso.

    Streaks of blood began to appear in the sandy arena floor.

 Chapter 15 Foundational Stance, Soft and Hard

    Using his new weapon, Fell overpowered his enemy with Moon Above. Leaving him with a slight wound in his chest, Fell took back most of his slash strength.

    Sitting down on the arena''s ground, Fell''s opponent had a puzzled look on his face. He wasn''t ready to face such an opponent. He felt a scary aura coming from Fell, an aura that was inched away from taking his life. Realizing that Fell didn''t give his all in this fight, the warrior stood up.

    "Thanks for going easy on me" respect was plastered on the spear user''s face, if Fell didn''t stop his motion, he would have probably been cut in half, his internal organs splashing on the sandy arena grounds.

    "I had no reason to kill you" responded Fell with a calm coldness, his muscles were loose and his respiration was steady as if he was just taking a carefree walk in a park.

    Turning around, he left the arena with an unhurried pace. Soldier''s Fortune in his hand, his back was straight and imposing, leaving a heavy impact on most spectators.

    His popularity was rushing to the peak, his name ringed loudly thought the public''s seats.

    Sifiso and Moha were waiting for him near the exit. Moha was still bragging about Fell, endlessly taunting Sifiso for the quality of his fighters.

    "I thought you trained your fighters better than this. At this point, their skills are very lacking and they are merely food for Fell", sighed Moha while dropping his arms to his side.

    Noticing that his old friend was ignoring his provocation, he turned to Fell and continued with a more serious tone.

    "Although, if it wasn''t for your monstrous strength, you would have had much more trouble against a spear user. Range is an important factor in fights, take that in account next time."

    "Will do!" responded Fell.

    Sifiso didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry. He dropped his shoulders and threw a hand inside one of the pockets on his martial art robe. He took out a small book out of it and approached Fell.

    "Take this, I noticed that you don''t really know what you are doing with that sword." Sighing, he quickly left, he was happy and proud of Fell but was disappointed that most of his fighters couldn''t take more than three hits from him.

    Fell received the manual and bowed in the direction of this eccentric benefactor. He expeditiously departed from the arena running in the direction of his room, excited to finally have a sword manual to nourish his hazardous swordsmanship.

    Closing the room behind him, he instantly took out his new treasure. The manual''s cover was made of old damaged leather, on top of it was written "Foundational Sword Moves" with pure golden colored character. Under the title was a small illustration featuring a swordsman taking an aggressive stance.

    Opening the book, he instantly immersed himself in his read. Sinking deeply in his own world filled with swords.

    The manual was divided in two parts; one part was focused on one-handed stances while other was made for broadswords. Similarly, both parts equally had thirteen basic moves.

    One-handed swords basic moves were stroking, stabbing, blocking, sweeping, whipping, slicing, poking, snapping, chopping, Obstructing, Stirring and Pressing. Each stance having a clear goal, to sneak into the opponent''s defense by using a variety of methods.

    Broadswords were more honest, due to their excessive weight. Their basic moves revolved more using the weapons weight and length to the user''s advantage. The thirteen basic moves for broadswords were slicing, hacking, blocking, cutting, pricking, rolling, closing, scooping, cross-cutting, twisting, shaking, supporting, and tilting.

    Even though the broadsword was a heavy weapon, hidden under its hardness was a deadly softness that gave it more flexibility during a fight, the practitioner alternates between the body leading the sword and the sword leading the body.

    Fell soon noticed that his sword was quite eccentric. Being a mix between a heavy broadsword and a one-handed long sword, Soldier''s Fortune could be used to unleash the majority of the moves in the manual.

    Fell was excited to put into practice all the theoretical knowledge he had just read. Unsheathing his sword, he started testing each move starting from the first.

    He began with the simplest move. His sword firmly grasped between his hand, his wrist sturdy but not inflexible. He executed the first move, Hacking, slashing forward with the tip of his sword by extending his wrist. He followed with Cutting, attacking an invisible wrist with a slicing motion. Losing himself in a multitude of sword moves. His blade dancing in the dimly lighted room.

    Fell was intoxicated, every single move he executed sending him a burst of dopamine in his brain. Soon he gradually made a cycle of all the stances and started repeating them. Perfecting every poke, thrust, and slash. His wrist led the dance with incredible dexterity, unleashing several swords cut in a single motion.

    He focused on his foundations as a swordsman, repeating each stance until it was perfectly executed. His hazardous swordsmanship was being nurtured and polished under the repeated training.

    A smile on his face, Fell could be seen flashing through his room, disappearing from one place to another. His sword danced in his hand, he was letting the sword completely lead his body, making him use every motion''s strength as a way to move. The broadswords basic slashes were gradually being added to his swordsmanship, making it acquire a hardness that could be felt.

    Every second passing by meant that Fell was acquiring experience. Of course, it wasn''t combat experience, but this training was still extremely beneficial for him. Practicing every move and every stance over and over gives him a much-needed fluidity for his sword skills. It made his rough moves more delicate and precise.

    After a few sets of his newly found sword exercises, he advanced forward with an indomitable momentum. He was feeling his sword gradually turn from an object to a part of his body, a strange unity was slowly taking form between Fell and his sword.

    He ended his practice with a final slash, sending a sharp condensed air pressure right to the wall, a deep mark appearing on it. A satisfied sigh escaped from his lips, training never felt this pleasurable for him, his endorphin peaked and gave him a strange high. His swordsmanship had really gone up a notch and he was truly happy about that.

    He looked around and was soon shocked to notice that the surface of his walls was crowded with sword wounds. He was so intoxicated during his training that he didn''t notice the deterioration he was inflicting on the old construct.

    He quickly sheathed his sword and threw it in his Spatial Pocket with a cough followed by a guilty whistle, as if all the damage done to the room was done by someone else.

 Chapter 16 Deep Chill

    Fell''s following weeks were quite simple, he spent most of his free time on refining his sword skills. He spent many hours a day training his moves to perfect every one of them. During his matches, he confirmed most of his insights and theories about his swordsmanship. Mixing both the one-handed soft and abstruse style with an aggressive matchless broadsword style, creating a horrible experience for whoever fought him.

    His defense was extremely solid. Not a single gladiator managed to pierce through his guard during his fights in the arena. His offense was feared by all, making him one of the fighters with the most dangerous attacks. His outrageous body was unequaled, which led most Master rankers to avoid frontal assault against him. His speed left their eyes bulging out of their orbits, and his newly formed swordsmanship added wings to his back making him a fighter to reckon.

    His ascension in the arena grounds made him build quite the reputation, He started being known as the Black Swordsman. Undefeated in Gladiator''s Heaven''s Master tier, no one could stop his meteoric rise.

    His sword skills were gradually polished during each fight. He was using every single fight as an opportunity to better himself. Since he had the opportunity to fight varied types of fighters, he was progressing at a revolting speed which led many to be jealous of his skills.

    His body cultivation was firmly secured at the door of the Mid Physique Molding realm. the only reason he didn''t break through to the next step was that he wasn''t in a hurry, feeling that his breakthrough was naturally going to happen.

    His Soul cultivation progress was the most astounding, his will being constantly tested during his training and fights, and due to his newfound obsession for swords, he broke through the Mid Level Will Sharpening, making it his strongest cultivation base.

    He noticed that his will base cultivation was so powerful, that if he came to use it during his fights. He would have ended up incapacitating most of his opponents in one hit. Noticing this detail, he figured he wouldn''t profit from the fights anymore if he won his battle so easily. He made the decision to refrain from using it, making greater gains in the heat of his battles and squeezing every ounce of experience during each fight.

    Too focused on his swordsmanship progress, he didn''t use the other Crystal, leaving his path of Energy cultivation untouched.

    Moha regularly came to check Fell, watching every single match like the paternal figure he was. Fell gradually grew to become a native of the Gladiators'' Heaven, his impressive strength mixed with his easy-going attitude made him adhere to their brotherhood. Days of strict training mixed with passionate sword cultivation made him not feel the flow of time. He frequently lost track of time during his training, Sifiso was haggard due to managing the young man''s fight schedule. He acted with benevolence and hospitality, making Fell develop a deep respect for his senior.

    After spending two weeks of endless fighting and training, Fell decided that today would be the first day he would leave the Arena. It wasn''t just to take a walk outside in his old neighborhood. There was a special reason behind this. He noticed that Moha wasn''t there at the end of his last fight. That was very unusual since Moha always made sure to be there for Fell at the end of his fights. Feeling that Moha''s absence was weird, he decided to go check on him in Pig''s Paw.

    Dressed in his black martial attire, he strode through New Casablanca''s slums with nonchalant steps, eyeing the multitude of streets and alley that composed it. He arrived at Moha''s bar and noticed a weird detail; the windows were damaged. He hastily went inside with a dash, and what he saw caused him to feel his stomach in knots.

    The bar was completely ravaged, shards of glass and broken wood planks littered on the floor close to the counter. Fell noticed that the traces of blood were still fresh, he ran to the counter, fearing that he might see what he dreaded. Thankfully, he didn''t find Moha''s body there, sadly he didn''t find any sign of him either.

    His heart filled with anguish, he rushed outside and ran to Moha''s house. It was a small apartment, two streets away for his bar. He instantly crossed the two streets, the door of Moha''s apartment was in front of him. He noticed another strange detail, Moha''s door handle had blood handprint on it. Fell deduced that it was Moha''s due to the size of the stain, his fear kicked in. He barged inside like a tempest and screamed.

    "Moha!" A growl filled with nervousness escaped from Fell''s throat, his eyes were red from blood and his stiff body was trembling.

    His eyes darted all around the small-sized apartment.

    "I''m¡­ -cough- here¡­" trembled a tired voice coming from another room in the back.

    He dashed across the apartment and speedily arrived where the source of the voice was. In front of him was a dying Moha, he was lying on a bed, his chest filled with blood.

    "DarkSun, they came to my bar¡­ they are looking for you¡­ be¡­ be careful¡­" coughed Moha with a face full of pain, he took a last pain-filled breath before closing his eyes for the last time.

    "No¡­no¡­no¡­" Fell''s eyes reddened from his state of mind. Anger, pain, sadness, he was feeling them all.

    Fell was shaking, his breath was weak. In a flash of memory, he remembered a Pill that he read in the Pill Almanac. It was a tier 3 Pill, its effect was the complete recovery of every single physical injury, it could even save people in death''s door.

    Ever since his Soul cultivation breakthrough, he started having clearer memories about the things he read. Quickly searching in his Spatial Pocket for the Pill he needed, he soon found a bright pink pill, he checked that It was truly the Absolute Recovery Pill, then threw it in Moha''s mouth.

    Fell''s felt like his heart was going to escape from his chest, he was intensely watching if the Pill was doing its effect.

    He soon noticed that Moha''s heart started beating again, his chest slowly rising each time Moha inhaled.

    His fear calmed down, the Pills that Anzar left him saved a life today. Sadly, Pills like this one were extremely hard to come by, very rare, he only had one that could be used in situations like these.

    His mind redirected to the perpetrator of Moha''s injuries. Killing intent started appearing in his mind, a strange pressure started emanating from him.

    "DarkSun, your prideful manor will bathe in its own blood!" Clenching his fists, his eyes infused with a frightening chill. A bone-chilling calmness suffused from his demeanor.

 Chapter 17 Cold Blooded Massacre

    Back at the DarkSun Mansion, an underling had just arrived at Vicious Zhang''s office. He was telling him the good news the leader was waiting for. They had finally located the bastard from the slums that was accompanying the blue-haired man.

    Vicious Zhang was delightfully whistling while opening a bottle of wine, unaware of the calamity he was going to encounter.

    His thugs beating Moha to death was similar to touching a dragon''s reverse scale, His misery was soon approaching his doorstep.

    As soon as Fell saw that Moha''s was feeling much better and that his had health stabilized, he instantly left in the direction of the DarkSun Mansion. The big manor was a well-known landmark, clearly standing out from the other part of the slums. Fell''s pace was unhurried, his killing intent accumulating every step. His will cultivation base was powered with intense killing resolve, Fell took out his weapon from his Spatial Pocket. He hooked his sword to his belt, he advanced forward with an unmatched urge for revenge.

    He soon arrived in front of the manor. At the door of the big construct were a few thugs guarding their lair. He approached the entrance with calm steps, soon a thug noticed him and menacingly barked in his direction.

    "Stop there! This is DarkSun''s territory!"

    Fell ignored the warning, gradually advancing to the front door made of steel. He unsheathed his sword, a beautiful moonlight curved in front of him. Accompanied by the sound of the door being cut, a blood-curdling scream followed the sound of steel cutting through the metallic door.

    Fell entered the manor, stepping aside from the thugs he just cut open. Having already resolved himself to kill, Fell was ready for bloodshed. He advanced through the building unleashing massacre upon every thug he met on his road, he used the simplest method against them, stepping on them like ants.

    While most of the thugs tried to put up a fight with Fell, some of them fled to call their generals. Under Vicious Zhang were Five Generals, those five were his most trusted subordinate, moving through mountains and seas to execute his orders.

    They each directed one of Vicious Zhang business. Drugs, Prostitution, Shylock, Gambling, Smuggling. Each general was followed by an assault team, equipped with the finest equipment a Gang could offer.

    The first one to encounter Fell was Serj, he managed the drugs section of Darksun''s business. He was also the first of them to die, he encountered Fell in a narrow space. The difference between them was similar to heaven and earth, no variable could have changed the result. Fell intent to slaughter them was absolute.

    Fell quickly eliminated Daron and Shavo, unleashing hell upon the prostitution and gambling managers. Their assault team not even having the time to fire in front of Fell''s speed. Every time he met a group of thugs, he would apply pressure on the earth, dashing forward in the middle of his opponents, slicing and hacking through every thug. Leaving behind a multitude of sliced corpses, littering the carpet of the luxurious villa.

    He soon arrived in the main department of the manor. John the smuggling executive was waiting for Fell. His assault team equipped with rocket launchers unleashed their fire on Fell.

    "Kill Him!"

    A sea of rocket appeared in front of him, blocking his vision with a barrage of light.

    He advanced forward, his killing intent exploding out. His blade was drawn out, clear moonlight bloomed on the edge of his sword. He dashed in the sea of rockets, passing through a narrow space in the barrage, slashing thought rockets that he couldn''t avoid.

    "How is that possible!" a shrill scream escaped from John''s dry mouth. his muscles were trembling, his urge to flee taking him over.

    He passed through the Smuggling assault team, causing blood-curdling screams in his passage. His killing intent demolished their spirit, leaving them shaking in fear. Fell cut through them with ease and barged in the hall.

    He instantly noticed an assault team equipped with snipers. Bullets cut through the hall in the direction of Fell, who responded with a dash, crossing drastically the distance between them. Finishing the last general Andy, he left the Shylock manager in half on the floor and advanced in his road.

    He dashed through the building floors with ease, eliminating every single thug that made the mistake to cross his path. Every single kill nourished his blade, giving the thirsty blade a gargantuan first meal.

    He soon arrived on the last floor, in front of him was a golden framed door. A colossal man was guarding the Boss''s entrance. The rare person who knew him called him Arto, he was the strongest of Boss Zhang''s subordinate, his confidant, his right-hand.

    "You are quite strong. The big five couldn''t even stop you in your track." The man calmly said, his arms were crossed. A confident grin drew on his face.

    "You''re a cultivator. You''re the same as Brother Zhang and I! We no longer exist on the same realm as those mortal peasants. Join us, DarkSun is just at its beginning. Join us and we will conquer this sh*tty city that birthed us."

    He stopped and looked deeply at Fell''s eyes, respect was drawn on his face, the five generals'' deaths didn''t even matter for him. Fell''s worth was just bigger than those mortal, he was a cultivator, and a young talented one. In the middle of the slums, it was a rare oddity.

    "Come! Join us and let''s take our revenge on this world that didn''t accept us!"

    His proposition dropped in Fell''s sea of killing intent, leaving him unfazed in front of the big man. He advanced forward with the same pace he entered DarkSun''s manor. It was with unhurried steps, mixed with matchless confidence that he advanced in the direction of the golden door. He came here with a clear goal, to uproot DarkSun.

    Feeling that his opponent wasn''t joining their cause, Arto frowned and sighed, disappointed that his proposal wasn''t even taken into consideration.

    He readied himself, his stance aggressive and hard. Before saying with a confident grin.

    "Junior, you should know that I''m a Mid-Level Physique Molding Stage, fighting me will be quite a challenge for a newly born cultivator."

    Seeing that Fell was ignoring him, anger started to appear on his face.

    "Then die!", he unleashed his most powerful but simplest blow, using his body''s titanic weight and his body cultivation base. Arto threw himself upward, sending a powerful straight punch with his armored fist.

    Fell responded with a left hook of his own, he added his concepts of softness and hardness into the blow. Their fists collided, spreading a small earthquake through the floor.

 Chapter 18 Thunderous Migh

    The sound of a snap followed the small earthquake, Fell''s right fist completely ignored Arto''s steel armament. He broke through the metal glove with ease, as if it was clay. Then followed its course, snapping the big man''s forehand.

    Arto took five-step backward, his broken arm tangling on his right side. His breathing was rough, his chest raised up and down as he tried to isolate his pain. As a cultivator, especially one that was native from New Casablanca''s gigantic Slums, it''s been so long that he felt pain this intense.

    It reminded him of his youth, an everyday fight to survive mentality. Born as an unwanted seed, he used his inborn gigantic height to dominate everyone around him, moving thought steel and tempest in New Casablanca''s underworld.

    Feeling that death was nearing him, he closed his eyes, having already accepted the reality that he might be killed in his fights.

    Using his other fist, he generated enough power to break a steel plate, unleashing it in the direction of Fell''s face.

    Fell instantly responded avoiding the hit, he moved right under Arto''s arm, drew his sword and slashed. This one motion swiftly cut through Arto''s neck. Unearthing a geyser of blood, painting the golding door red.

    Fell advanced forward, using his body''s softness. With a circular motion starting from his ankle to his sword, moving through every single joint of his body, giving his chop a frightening speed. His blade sped to its top speed, cutting the door in its trajectory.

    Behind the door was Vicious Zhang, sitting on his couch savoring his wine.

    "You finally came.", he calmly said before taking another sip of his drink before continuing, "Looks like that blue haired outsider really gave you that invitation."

    "What invitation?" responded Fell, surprised to hear news about his brother.

    "That''s what I should have expected from a peasant like you. You didn''t even notice the exceptional opportunity you were given." Contempt was clear in his eyes, he couldn''t understand how that lucky bastard dealt with the blue-haired oversee.

    "The blue emperor gave you his approval. But here you are, still clueless about the serendipity you just acquired. The spatial pocket''s true benefit isn''t its effect or its contents, what''s truly important is its meaning!"

    "By fusing with it, you acquired a strange mole between the eyebrows. Signifying that you were on the runs for Earth''s Echelon Thirteen !"

    Earth''s top cultivator was called Daoist Shadowmaker in the cultivation world, a rare body cultivation genius that attained a titanic body due to his body''s cultivation. His rare physique could grow in size, covering the whole sky, towering in front of his opponents.

    He was Earth''s first cultivator to have reached the Heaven''s Ascension Court, adding the blue planet in the list of their cultivation planets. As soon as he came back to Earth, he initiated Echelon Thirteen, aided with his oversees. they had to choose promising seeds and form them into Earth''s first generation of cultivators, their goal was to pick thirteen of them. Thirteen of the Earth''s strongest cultivators, project Echelon Thirteen was on track.

    Anzar was the youngest of the emperors, a title given to the 4 strongest followers behind Daoist Shadowmaker. He picked Fell as he was impressed by his will, adding him on the run for the Earth thirteen strongest.

    Project Echelon Thirteen was beginning and Fell was part of Earth''s first Chosen cultivators.

    Sighing, he smiles in the direction of Fell and continued.

    "Thankfully, spots can be stolen. Even if the blue emperor didn''t choose me. I''ll steal a place on my own!"

    Getting up, he rotated his cultivation base producing a tremor through the room. Vicious Zhang cultivated the Energy path, he used most of the fortune he won in New Casablanca to buy a half-finished lightning manual through his network and his connections.

    Exchanging the past ten years'' gains for a cultivation method might seem enormous. But the might he had after training in the lightning-based technique was astonishing.

    Vicious Zhang swiftly got up. His cultivation base powered, making the airflow in the room hazardous. Lightning zaps sparkled from his skin, heating the air around and causing smalls burst of thunder.

    Eyes shining he dashed in front of him, accumulating his lightning energy to his hands, he instantly discharged his accumulated power right in the trajectory of Fell''s face.

    A lightning beam escaped from his arm, it expeditiously appearing in front of Fell. He swiftly reacted in the blink of an eye, he dodged the lightning attack and dashed forward, closing the gap between him and Vicious Zhang.

    Their eyes crossed. Fell''s Will cultivation base, powered with his killing intent, exploded outwards, chocking Vicious Zhang for half a beat. Fell immediately used this frame to send his attack. Moonlight blossomed on the edges of his sword sending a wave of coldness in the Gang Leader''s neck. Then, a flash of sword curve in the direction of Zhang''s neck.

    Vicious Zhang ignored the Will attack, thunderous clapped in his mind, cleansing his mind and protecting him. He focused on the blow that intended to take his life, he immediately pulled a long saber from his back and hacked in front of him, lightning zap were dancing all along the blade of his saber.

    Their blades crossed spreading shock-waves around them. Fell grunted from surprise, lightning energy transmitted from their contact was ravaging his body. lightning arcs were burning his skin black, powerful lightning bolts were ruining his internal organs. Coughing blood, he understood that he needed to swiftly end the fight, a battle of attrition would only result in his death

    He savagely advanced forward, ignoring the lightning surrounding him. He executed his fastest and sharpest cut, using the softness and hardness intrinsic to his body, nourishing the blow with his swordsmanship and his deep killing intent.

    His sword cut through the air, traveling at a phenomenal speed, its trajectory was abstruse and hidden. But at the same time, his slash was hiding a massif kinetic strength that was ready to burst out at any moment.

    Zhang was lost in front of Fell''s swordplay, he couldn''t deduce from where the blows were coming. In a fit of panic, he unleashed all the energy stored in his reserve. Lightning exploded outward forming a small barrier around him, Zhang looked like a small golden sun.

    Fell passed thought the attack, stepping right in the lightning filled zone. His skin was instantly turned black by the intense energy, he could feel his flesh squirming under the attack. Gritting his teeth, he sends all of his focus on his attack, ignoring the lightnings that were burning his flesh.

    "Entering my lightning territory will be your last mistake!" barked Vicious Zhang, sending even more energy thought his energy pathway, a stream of energy exploding out of him.

    Fell''s internal organs were cooked, he was coughing blood but his blow was still traveling in its path. The tip of his sword dance in the sea of lightning before swiftly penetrating Zhang''s chest, perforating his heart. This desperate powerful blow marked the end of the gang leader''s life.

 Chapter 19 Side Effec

    Fell was struggling to stay conscious; his body felt like it was going to stop responding to him at any moments. Killing Vicious Zhang in a frontal assault wasn''t without a price.

    His skin was utterly charred black, a smell of burned flesh emanated from him. His internal organs were displaced, and his lungs were perforated, every single breath was a constant struggle.

    Calming down, he swiftly checked the content of Boss Zhang''s office. The was a large painting hung on a wall. It depicted a group of magnificent ladies. Behind the piece of art was a small safe. Fell tried to open it with no success; the high-end safe was too secure, you could either open it by vocal or facial recognition.

    Sadly, Fell could use neither option. Vicious Zhang was dead, and his body was unrecognizable, his last attack being a suicidal one, it completely ravaged his body beyond recognition.

    Not finding any other solution, he unsheathed his sword. And, used his greatest strength to hack on the safe. His blade swiftly cut through the metal object. Although the backlash of executing a sword skill with his body''s condition left him coughing blood.

    He ignored his broken body and checked the contents of the safe, inside of it were three black cards and a golden colored manual. The three black cards were linked to Vicious Zhang''s personal account, the gains he made with DarkSun were all collected in those three international bank accounts, making Fell gain a massive fortune. As for the golden manual, Fell deduced it was the lightning based energy cultivation technique that Vicious Zhang was using. expeditiously

    Fell swiftly emptied the safe and left the empty manor, leaving behind him mountains of corpses. New Casablanca''s top gang was promptly uprooted in a single night; the slums finally freed from their tyranny. While trying to use Fell as a stepping stone, Vicious Zhang ended up losing his precious life.

    A few hours later, the sun was majestically making its way to the top of the sky, announcing the start of a new day. Fell finally came back to Moha''s house, his physical condition was horrendous, but his defying physique was slowly regenerating itself.

    His broken bones were mending themselves; fresh rosy skin appeared under his charred one. His life force kicked in, healing and fixing every injury in his body. His blood was running through his veins, supplementing every single part of his body with nutrients and oxygen.

    Leftover energy from his first consumption of Pill was also being consumed, hastening his body''s recovery. The energy present in a grade 2 Pill wasn''t to be belittled, a small First step cultivator didn''t have the strength to process it all.

    By the time Moha opened his eyes, Fell''s body already left its critical condition. He looked the same as usual, the only detail betraying him was his pale white face.

    "I¡­ am alive?" he asked half awake and confused, his last memory was the speech he gave to Fell while he was on his death bed. Ensued by a flood of memories rushing to his brain, the pain from the beating he received from DarkSun thugs burned his chest.

    He started patting his body, tracing his body and looking around for marks of his injuries. His head tilted in the side from confusion; his eyes were darting around him as if someone was going to give him the answer to his questions. He lost himself in his doubts, a blank look appearing on his face.

    Fell watched the funny scene unfurl in front of his eyes; he wasn''t bothered to clear Moha''s doubts. The old man got up from his bed, directed himself to his bathroom.

    A few seconds after that, a surprised yelp resounding through the small apartment. Followed by a running Moha that jumped at Fell.

    "It must be you! What did you do to my body!" he screamed while grabbing Fell from his collar, agitating him up and down.

    A pained grunt escaped the young man''s lips; his internal organs were still recovering. Moha quickly noticed it and put him down, then looked at him with expectation.

    "You were gonna die... I had to save you. I¡­ didn''t expect the little side effect¡­" He said while avoiding Moha''s intense gaze.

    The Absolute Recovery Pill being a precious Rank 3 Pill, its effects were to be expected. It not only completely healed Moha from his injuries, but it also gave him back his appearance when he was in his twenties, healing his body from the ravage of time.

    "What side effect are those. This isn''t the face of Moha the Butcher¡­", his words were the complete opposite of his actions, he was eyeing his body in a narcissistic way.

    His skin was bright and flawless, it had the same suppleness as a newborn. He could be assessed as good looking, similar to those dazzling actors in top rated movies. With a hand raised to his chiselled chin, he continued.

    "Well I have to be honest, this new face is quite good looking, I would have been quite the lady killer if I wasn''t living in this sh*thole!"

    "Talking about sh*tholes, where are the bastards that ambushed me and destroyed my bar?" After calming down, he finally thought about his assailants. Deep down he was fuming that he, The Butcher, might have died to crappy thugs.

    "They are dead." Calmly responded Fell.

    "Well, we still need to teach DarkSun a lesson. We''ll take back what they destroyed!" He was already thinking about his revenge, how he would torture every single member. He was pounding on the table in front of him with rage and anger.

    "DarkSun isn''t a problem anymore; they will never show their face again in this city. I uprooted their QG when you were recovering."

    Hearing the news, Moha''s laughter spread like a wave through the small room. Fell quickly recounted last night''s assault, skipping the details about cultivation, only telling him how he barged inside and cleanly killed them all.

    "Well done! That''s my boy! Clean and swift!" Moha reacted with pride shining in his eyes. A single night to uproot the slums most virulent Gang wasn''t an easy feat. But the young man in front of him accomplished it, alone and in one sweep.

 Chapter 20 A Warriors Res

    Fell spend another hour there, deepening his relationship with Moha. Having felt the pain of losing someone for the first time, he promised himself to take care of his close one.

    "Take care of yourself old man," said Fell while leaving the room.

    On his face was a carefree smile, he left the small apartment and went in the direction of Gladiator''s Heaven. He soon arrived in front of the eccentric construct, he swiftly stepped inside, his steps walking towards of his room.

    His steps echoing in the quiet building, he quickly arrived in his room and swiftly stepped inside. Closing the door behind him, he sighed from exhaustion before throwing himself in his bed. He soundlessly fell asleep; his body and mind were utterly worn from today''s experience.

    The next morning, every single inhabitant of the slums noticed a strange detail. DarkSun completely disappeared from New Casablanca, no member was present in the Slums'' streets. The homeless that noticed last night''s scene were horrified and quickly left the scene, afraid of being hurt in a crossfire during Fell''s entrance in the manor. Soon, the first few courageous youngsters stepped inside, smiting their senses in shambles.

    First was the deadly silence that made their heart pound, followed by a horrendous smell. Then came the view, in front of the citizens was a long trail of dismembered corpses, bathing in a pool of blood and innards.

    Jake was a homeless beggar from the slums, he lived in the long street close to the DarkSun''s manor. He was here when the black-haired swordsman began his assault, he came back to check the place where the action happened. He didn''t expect the horrifying scene that was in front of him.

    "Oh my¡­" a grunt followed from his lips, his throat contracted preventing him from finishing his sentence. Nausea clawed at his throat, he tried to contain himself as much as he could, but it was just too much to take. He threw up, chunks of his meager breakfast escaped from his lips. He cleaned his face and coughed up in disgust before he left the scene.

    Not long after that, the news of DarkSun''s demise spread in the New Casablanca Slums. One of the city''s most virulent cancer was swiftly dealt with in a single night. Their reign of tyranny on New Casablanca''s underworld was ended by a mysterious black-haired swordsman. Some spectators of Gladiator''s Heaven connected him with the rising stars of the Master Rank Fell Pluck, making his name spread thought New Casablanca''s city. His figure soon was associated with last night''s assailant, making Gladiator''s Heaven crowded with people wanting to know the truth.

    For the first time in a long time, Fell skipped his morning routine. The sun was already at its highest, everyone in the city was talking about his feats. But, he was still in his bed, quietly recovering in his sleep. Last night took a tremendous toll to his mind, leaving him physically and mentally profoundly worn.

    His body was gradually changing, having been put in a situation of intense stress. It was smoothly achieving a breakthrough, advancing in the Mid Level Physique Molding realm. Strangely, small sparks were running through his veins, the lightning energy residues were swiftly being absorbed by his Body, firmly consolidating his foundation.

    Strangely, as he continued absorbing the lightning residue in his body, a microscopic arc of light bloomed close to his navel. The arc of light started running through his body, carving energy pathways through his flesh. As it continued in its road, it started absorbing the energy it encountered, quickly growing into a small string of lightning energy.

    The small lightning string began competing with Fell''s body, both of them absorbing the leftover lightning based energy that was dispersed in Fell''s body.

    Soon under both absorptions, no trace of lightning could be found on his body. Except that the small lightning string grew up after the incorporation, transforming into a small snake formed from lightning.

    During its absorption, it was constantly carving pathway thought Fell''s body to move around. And having to travel through all of his body, it ended up carving up a set of energy pathway in his body.

    The little snake started looking around, travelling endlessly through the pathway it carved. It soon stopped, disappointed to not find any other food. It quickly ran to Fell''s navel before disappearing, nowhere to be found in Fell''s body.

    The oddity disappeared as quickly as it appeared. Fell was still in a deep sleep, clueless to the occurrence that just happened inside of his body. His body finished recovering as soon as his Body cultivation base consolidated, firmly stepping in the middle step of his realm.

    Soon Fell gradually woke up from his sleep. Feeling his body''s condition, he was surprised to have recovered entirely.

    He noticed that his breakthrough naturally happened in his sleep, the barrier that separated him from the next realm was already as thin as a piece of paper, it was only a matter of time. Added with last night''s fight. He wasn''t taken back by his sudden breakthrough.

    ''I should check the content of the last cultivation Crystal, there is also that strange manual that I looted last night. The might Vicious Zhang achieved with it was mind-blowing'' he thought, memories from last night''s fight flooded in his brain.

    A greedy smile appeared on his youthful face, Vicious Zhang''s lightning energy was especially attractive to Fell, he was longing for a power awakening. He swiftly took out the two items, his smile deepened on his face when he grabbed the cultivation crystal.

    Memories from his past pains resurfaced, he instantly shut down any hesitation in his thought and put the crystal between his eyebrows. Knowledge flooded in his brain, an intense torrent of information shocked him still. A slight trembling traversed his body, but opposed to his expectations, he felt no pain.

    The usual sensation of his brain being carved didn''t appear, he felt as if his mind was a black hole absorbing every piece of content contained in the crystal. Three sentences appeared in his mind, endlessly reverberating in his soul.

    ''Energy Cultivation! Awaken a universe!''

    ''Energy Cultivation! Condense a universe!''

    ''Energy Cultivation! Govern a universe!''

 Chapter 21 Hyper Perception

    The knowledge transfer lasted for five minutes, Fell didn''t encounter any difficulty in the process. The only visible sign that he was experiencing pain was a slight twitch in his lips, showing his discomfort.

    "I really did get stronger," he thought "My pain resistance increased quite a lot with my Will cultivation".

    The mantra from the Soul Cultivation resurfaced in his mind, helping him ease the pain.

    "One will to control yourself! Quite self-explanatory, so not only can I use my Will to shock my opponent, it even helps me during my trainings, the more I use it, the more I force myself, the stronger it will get. What a masochistic cultivation path."He pondered.

    His progress was astonishing, the pain that accompanied the transfer no longer shocking him still.

    "Energy Cultivation. A path focused on absorbing the energy inherent in space, the same energy that makes the universe endlessly expand and develop. It was given the name of Dark Energy by Earth''s scientist, the energy responsible for space''s expansion. Cultivators absorb this energy, develop it into their own inner universe. They labelled it as Heaven and Earth energy, making it the most conventional path in cultivation." He analyzed in his mind.

    His thoughts powered by his Will were accelerating. His brain was running at full power, similar to an engine being overclocked. By the time the knowledge transfer was finished, he had completed his preparations. Ready to start working on his Energy Path.

    "According to the knowledge I''ve acquired, the first step is to sense Heaven and Earth energy. This step is where most mortals stop, forever unable to break through this natural barrier." He pondered with his hand rested on his chin, his eyes were shining, excitement visible in them.

    He swiftly sat cross-legged, putting himself in an optimal position. He regulated his breathing, making all of his senses focus outward.

    Several few minutes passed in the dimly lighted room, Fell was still in the same position.

    "Nothing, I sense absolutely nothing, is my natural talent the problem?" he pondered on his problem, his heaven-defying mentality had been triggered.

    He tried several methods to sense the energy inherent in space, but his efforts weren''t successful. Another thirty minutes went by, Fell''s appearance was disheveled.

    His eyes were gorged with blood, his eyes shined with a bestial red light in his dull lighted place. He groaned while moving his hand through his ruffled hair, frustration clearly visible in his youthful face.

    "Sensing something that is present everywhere is quite tricky, If I didn''t see Vicious Zhang use Heaven and Earth energy, I would have probably doubted its existence¡­" He pondered in his mind, in the end, he found no trick to sense it.

    He slapped himself in the face and breathed, clearing his doubts and refreshing his mind. Calmed, he emptied his mind and focused all of his senses on the void surrounding him.

    A few breaths later, he was already meditating, thoroughly focused on his surroundings. Due to his closed eyes, his other senses exploded outward, he could clearly feel the stillness of the air in his room. The slight buzz of a fly''s wings was magnified by his ears, his perception was covering a much bigger area. The closer things were to Fell, the sharper his senses were picking up information.

    "Nothing¡­ And I can''t stay in this state for too long" He coughed up blood, the hyper-perceptive state he entered made him feel as if his brain cells were frying. He even heard small popping sounds, making him immediately open his eyes to interrupt the process.

    "I can''t stay in that state for too long, I''ll end up frying my brain dead." He thought while taking out water from his Spatial Pocket. He opened the bottle and swiftly emptied its content on his face, a screen of vapor instantly appeared when it made contact with his fiery forehead.

    He finished cooling himself and pondered on his problem, he could feel that he was on the right track. The only variable that stopped him was the time he could stay in a hyper-perceptive state. He just wasn''t able to stay in that state long enough to sense Heaven and Earth energy.

    He spent the next hour thinking, his physical appearance would have made anyone who saw him escape from the room. His breathing was rough and weak, similar to an injured beast. His eyes were bloodshot, carved veins could be seen on his sclera. His repeated use of hyper-perception emptied a majority of his body''s resource.

    A shiver coursed through him, his eyes illuminated the red room. He just had an idea that could help him sense Heaven and Earth energy.

    "I was dumb." He slapped himself while thinking, "spreading my senses outward wasn''t the correct way, as I can''t maintain them for a long time to perceive the energy!".

    "I should try the opposite! Focusing my senses in a singular point in space, I''ll perceive thought this veil in a single step!" the shine in his eyes intensified, his lips curved into a confident smile.

    His successive attempt made him train his hyper-perceptive senses, he could now easily enter it and leave it at Will. Although, it still consumed a ridiculous amount of will power, making him unable to use it without paying a heavy price.

    His brain kicked in, similar to an engine working at its maximal output. He could feel his surrounding accelerate under his state, he could clearly perceive his surrounding with frightening clarity, the sword wounds on the walls magnified into gigantic canyons.

    Feeling his brain heating, he instantly exploded his senses outward. But this time, his senses were focused on a single point in front of him.

    He was using his full strength, unleashing his perception on a singularity. He could feel the veil of space gradually disappear.

    He stayed in this state for a single instant. But to Fell, his focus was so intense that this single breath turned into eternity. Feeling that he was close to unveiling this mystery, he ignored his brain signals.

    His innards were roasting from his body''s intense activity, he could feel his hot scorching blood running through his veins. Refusing to stop his attempt, he continued trying harder to perceive energy, ignoring his now bleeding aperture.

    Under this intense moment of crisis, he heard a pop similar to a balloon being pierced. Time stopped to a standstill, every single object in movement went still in Fell''s eyes. The dust particles dancing in the room made an abrupt stop in their path, turning into a real-life canvas, their motions completely stopped.

    Piercing space with his senses, Fell achieved the impossible and sensed Heaven and Earth energy. Accomplishing his first step in his Energy Path cultivation.

 Chapter 22 Rough Path

    The moment he felt its presence, Fell''s view of the world changed completely. All around him, he could sense a sea of energy blooming in the void. He saw them dancing all over his room, similar to dandelion seeds spreading with the wind.

    "Finally!" coughing out blood, he left his hyper-perceptive state. He sighed and massaged his fiery hot forehead, cooling down his brain temperature.

    Even when he retracted his senses, he could still feel the energy that existed everywhere. From the moment he pierced the veil blocking his perception, his brain could process the information automatically.

    "Time to test the effect of this so-called Heaven and Earth energy!" he thought while moving his hand closer to a small seed of energy.

    The moment his hand touched it, it rushed in his body, instantly disappearing. He waited for some time, noticing that nothing was happening, he rotated his soul cultivation, ordering the energy to flood in his direction.

    A stream of energy swiftly rotated around Fell. He was looking like a Sun, an endless sea of planes orbiting around him.

    "Come!" ordering the energy to dart inside him. A long string of Heaven and Earth energy rushed inside of his body, disappearing as soon as it entered it.

    "Nothing?" pondered Fell, puzzled that he didn''t feel any change in him. "Ah! I need to cycle it inside me! Cleansing it and branding it with my will."

    He absorbed another string of Heaven and Earth energy, rotated it in his body, he soon came to notice that his body''s energy pathways were completely opened.

    "How is this possible?" doubt appeared in his eyes, one of the most challenging steps of energy cultivation was the opening of the energy pathway.

    This step left a majority of cultivators to howl in pain, the sensation of carving thousands of small pathway in their own body wasn''t the best sensation.

    The degree of completion for this step determined the starting point of their cultivation, becoming a rising genius or trash was determined in this step.

    "Anzar¡­" the figure of the Blue Emperor appeared in his mind. "Well, this is still a fortune. I should make good use of this opportunity; I''ll make my foundation as solid as possible."

    He marked this debt in his heart, forever grateful for his brother. He calmed himself and focused back on training, striking determination shined in his eyes.

    "As I don''t need to focus on carving and unearthing my energy pathways, I''ll just straight up focus on building up my energy." He analyzed his future course of action, planning everything was one of Fell''s main tool for survival.

    The first step of Energy Cultivation was called Energy Condensation. An energy cultivators main goal was to create a universe inside him, absorbing and accumulating Heaven and Earth energy inside them constituted the first Realm of this path.

    Two options were available for them, either to focus on quality or quantity. As a cultivator''s time was counted, they couldn''t opt for both options.

    The conventional path was focused on building up a gigantic energy reserve, Quantity determined a cultivator''s progress, each realm breakthrough slightly cleansed the energy. Achieving Quality throughQuantity.

    The other path went the opposite route, every single string of energy was supposed to be the purest possible. Each realm breakthrough would slightly raise the maximum amount of energy in the cultivator''s body.

    Both paths crossed each other in the upper realms, but they determined a cultivator''s future endurance or burst potential.

    "My bodily strength already gives me ample endurance. Going for quality is my path!" thought Fell, satisfied with his decision.

    He took out the golden manual; its cover clearly showed its ancient age. He opened the book and recognized that it was written in Chinese characters.

    "¡­" disappointed by his discovery, he closed the old book and put it back in his Spatial Pocket.

    "I''ll ask Sifiso to help me deal with it." he thought while throwing it back in his Spatial Pocket.

    Not having anything else to read, he sat on the floor ready to meditate. His breathing cycles lengthened after a few breaths, making each inhalation and exhalation deep and powerful.

    He soon attained a focused state of mind; his only thought revolved around the energy surrounding him. He willed with his mind, a string of energy separated itself from the stream of Heaven and Earth stream of energy. It swiftly rushed inside his body, running through his energy pathway.

    Fell lost himself in training; he was cycling the energy around his energy pathway. He soon discovered that he didn''t even need to control it willfully, the energy strings rotated automatically along his energy pathway.

    Each rotation made the string of energy smaller, rising its purity at the same time. Fell kept repeating the cycle, increasing its purity through each repetition.

    He quickly noticed that nine cycles were his limit, the tenth and eleventh rotation would make his body consume it. He willed another string of energy and cycled it nine times around his body, attaining the peak purity possible for him.

    "Perfect! Now I need to stock it where I will condense my inner universe! The knowledge from the crystal explained that it was close to the navel."

    He ordered the energy with his will, making her dart in the direction of his navel. It swiftly dashed through his pathways, approached his inner universe before disappearing.

    "Success!" he screamed while clenching his fists. But, soon noticed a mistake, as soon as it entered his inner universe, the energy that he purified and branded disappeared entirely. He tried to take it out of his energy reserve but failed.

    Doubt appeared on his face, he quickly analyzed his past moves, searching for the mistake he might have done. Nothing.

    He tried again, absorbing a small stream of energy inside of his body. He cycled it nine times before sending it in his reserve.

    "What is going on?" he swallowed his saliva and shrugged, his first energy cultivation session left him baffled with unanswered questions.

 Chapter 23 Seclusion

    Not long after that, Fell kept repeating his attempt at absorbing and branding his first sliver of energy. But, his efforts left his gritting his teeth, every time he finished absorbing and condensing Heaven and Earth energy, it would disappear as soon as he sent it in his inner universe.

    "This shouldn''t be happening, something is wrong with my inner universe¡­" he thought, before spreading his will inside his body, a clear image of his inside appeared in his mind.

    This was an application of Will power that he discovered when he was executing his Hyper Perceptive state. Checking his body''s condition, he didn''t notice any visible problem.

    He sent his senses near his navel, looking for the place where his inner universe should be. He located it soon, situated between his diaphragm and lower abdominal, his inner universe appeared in his mind.

    What he saw left him baffled, he swallowed in nervousness while trying to calm his nervousness.

    "What is that!" he asked himself, frightened by the image in front of him.

    Floating in the middle of his energy reserve was a golden egg, hovering around the golden egg where the slivers of purified energy he absorbed.

    "A freaking parasite!" a shiver ran through his body, memories of his past surfaced in his mind.

    During his childhood in the Baby Cemeteries, he remembered a child that died due to an intestinal parasite. His body condition left Fell traumatized, the intestinal worm ate most of the young man resources, leading his organs to fail.

    "Calm down, calm down, I can solve this!" He swiftly sent a stream of will, intending to destroy the intruder entirely. His will crashed on the golden egg, passing through him like any other part of his body.

    "My will is ineffective against it¡­" he pondered on his problem. His brain activity spiked, his neurons pushing themselves to their very limits as he worked towards finding a possible solution.

    He soon came to two conclusions. Either his will wasn''t powerful enough to wipe the parasite living in his inner universe. Or, the parasite was already part of himself, thus making it impossible for Fell to clean it with his own will.

    Not finding any solution to fix his problem, he decided to leave the matter for the future.

    "I''ll stop feeding it for now. I don''t know if it''s a fortune in disguise or a disaster ready to explode at any moment. Being safe is the best way, I''ll find another solution when I''ll get stronger." He organized his future plan, decided not to feed his own energy to the weird egg.

    Having calmed down, he went back to absorbing Heaven and Earth energy. Except for this time, when he finished cycling the energy, he used the purified energy strand as nourishment for his own body.

    He felt his body''s strength progress a little bit by a sliver, his flesh was being tempered and baptized by the Heaven and Earth energy.

    He gradually lost track of time, fully focused on refining his body. He could feel that his compressive and tensile strength were progressing at a slow but secure pace.

    He was already in the Mid Level Body Molding stage before his fight with DarkSun, making his body already far superior to a mortal physique. After being tempered by Vicious Zhang, he could feel his body was progressing at an alarming pace.

    Under his constant absorption, his speed of energy refinement bolstered, making him gradually capable of refining two slivers of energy at the same time.

    He was intoxicated by the feeling of being baptized by Heaven and Earth energy, streams of energy made their way to his body, before being refined and absorbed, making his Body Cultivation progress at a decent pace.

    His fast progress made him even more serious in his training, every energy cycled and purified rewarded him with advancement in his Body''s cultivation.

    Fell''s newfound strength didn''t diminish his craving for power and strength. On the contrary, his results only made him train more; an endless cycle began for the young man.

    He spent all his time training; he only stopped when Sifiso came to his room. Fell quickly told him that he was recovering and went back to his practice, intoxicated and addicted by his growth pace.

    Under his constant energy absorption, He could feel that his breakthrough to the Top Level Physique Molding was gradually approaching. His will was also being tempered and refined by the training, constantly applying his will on the energy surrounding him also served as cultivation.

    His fast progress made him spent the rest of the week in seclusion, under the constant supply of energy, eating wasn''t a necessity. He only stopped to drink a sip of water every hour, keeping his body hydrated during his training.

    Falling in an obsession for training, his mind entirely focused on his pursuit of strength. He broke through by the end of the week, stepping in the Top Level Physique Molding stage.

    His breakthrough caused quite a scene in Gladiator''s Heaven, leaving a deep impression to whoever was present in the barrack.

    His body turned into a black hole, large streams of energy were rushing in his body as he activated his hyper-perceptive state, forming a dome around him. Under the constant nourishment and tempering from Heaven and Earth energy, he swiftly advanced in Body Cultivation. Firmly stepping in the Top Level Physique Molding stage.

    His bodily strength was ridiculous. If he faced Arto again, he could cripple him with a random slap, ending the fight with no difficulty.

    His Soul cultivation also made spectacular progress during his seclusion. Continually having to control the energy surrounding him was a form of cultivation, constantly refining and tempering his will.

    He could now precisely and accurately spread his will through his body, making him control his physical condition with no problems.

    His spectacular body was a force to be reckoned, adding to the equation his defying will made him a horrible opponent for cultivators in the first realm. But, he wasn''t done yet, after his fight with DarkSun, Fell still didn''t get to practice his swordsmanship.

    During this week of hellish absorption, his lust for swordsmanship was only controlled by his rigorous discipline.

 Chapter 24 Maturing

    Fell rose from his cross-legged position. Popping sounds resounded in the quiet room. His joints and bones snapped and cracked due to his long period of inactivity.

    His blood started running through his veins, awakening the power hidden in his flesh.

    He clenched his fist and felt power streaming through his blood, a satisfied smile drew on his lips.

    "Top Level Physique Molding. I feel like I can completely wreck Gladiator''s Heaven if I gave it my all." He roughly assessed his power, then took out his blade from his Spatial Pocket.

    He grabbed his sword from the pommel with his right hand, while his left hand coursed through the blade. His eyes shined in the dark, and an obscene grin appeared on his face.

    "One week without touching you, I thought I was gonna go crazy!" shivering from excitement, he barged out of his room.

    His last sword practice left his wall filled with deep cuts, and he feared that in his current state. He might cut the small construct in half, Sifiso wouldn''t let that slide.

    He stepped outside for the first time since his seclusion. The moon hung high in the sky, showing him that it was the middle of the night. A gust of fresh wind hit his senses, refreshing his mind and clearing his lungs.

    Fell took a deep breath, inflating his lungs to their highest limit. His torso rose during his inhalation, reaching an inhuman proportion. Before deflating, a rapid arrow of gas escaped from his lips. It travelled in a straight path before hitting the bark of a tree, marking it with a deep cut.

    The small courtyard was empty at this hour. Most gladiators were either sleeping or celebrating their victory in the city. He enjoyed training in the night, his sword in hand, watched by the cold and distant Moon.

    He watched the astral plane; the soft moonlight slowly cleansed his mind. His chest rose up and down in a slight rhythm, reminiscent of his past.

    Fell was thinking about his accomplishments; he was processing all of the lasts events. Starting from his meeting from Anzar, shifting his destiny from its original path.

    "Blue Emperor, it looks like I have made myself quite the strong brother." he thought, the idea that Anzar might forget him not even crossing his mind.

    Due to living in the atrocious Baby Cemetery, Fell acquired a strange talent. He could smell people, roughly identifying if they had good or bad intention.

    He was confident of his talent, Anzar was and will always be his brother. Blue Emperor or not, he was Fell''s first friend.

    He was standing with a straight back, reminiscences of his past made his eyes shine with a strange light.A bizarre pressure suffused from him, crushing the weed close to his feet.

    Moha''s death experience passed in his mind, his heart skipping a beat. His burning anger was still fresh in his mind, and he remembered the oath he took. His intrinsic loneliness made him take a vow to protect his close one.

    Following that, his assault on DarkSun flashed in his mind. His encounter with Arto and Zhang made him realise something important.

    In life, no one was right or wrong, and everyone has their paths.Arto left Fell with a seed of respect, respect for the cultivators'' community.

    Even Vicious Zhang was part of Fell''s change, the gang leader flashed in his mind.

    "We are the same. Born in the poor and deprived slums, unwanted by the world, looked in contempt by everyone. They all deserve my respect, respect for grasping their weapons and fighting destiny. Carving themselves their path in this universe."

    Moha, Sifiso, Anzar, every single one of them was part of Fell''s change. Those three figures passed in his mind, causing a beaming smile on his lips.

    Fell rarely confronted his emotions like this. It was a novel experience for him; his newfound power came with even more significant responsibility.

    He couldn''t afford to disappoint them; he couldn''t afford to disappoint himself.

    He had the chance of finally having a clear grasp of his destiny, his path was clear. He could only aim at the top, anything lower would be an insult to his opportunity.

    His sword in his left hand, he touched the pommel with his right hand.His hand grabbed around Soldier''s Fortune; fingers gripped around the weapon''s handle. His wrist was firm but not forceful, leaving enough maneuverability in his swordplay.

    He unsheathed his weapon, his eyes filled to the brim with his feelings. His motion was smooth and fluid, comparable to water streaming down a river.

    His blade appeared in the night, illuminating the dark courtyard.

    He executed his foundational stances, warming himself. His blade danced under the moon, creating a beautiful picture.

    One man and one sword, dancing under the cold Moon''s watch. His swordsmanship nourished and grew stronger with his feelings; his strikes showed his mental state.

    He soon finished executing his foundational moves, passing from One-Handed sword stances to Broadsword stances, switching between leading the sword in his motions, and being driven by the sword''s weight.

    He immersed himself in his training; every single stroke served as a way to empty his feelings. He slashed forward using the weapon''s excessive weight and spun in the air due to the slash''s momentum.

    He ended the broadsword stances with a slice in the reverse direction, sending a sharp wind in its path.

    Finishing his warmup, he started mixing both sword stances. Hiding the broadswords simple but Heavy nature, in the middle of the sneaky One-Handed style.

    His strikes were separating from both styles, turning into a strange sword style. His swordsmanship was maturing, leaving the classic foundational moves.

    Fell dissected every stances'' concept, adding it in each of his blows. The One-Handed sword style and Broadsword style were disappearing with each motion.

    Nurturing his swordsmanship with each stance, an incredible transformation was happening.

    He was comparable to a larva turning into a butterfly; his swordsmanship was maturing at a fast pace.

    Under the moonlight, Fell''s heart was burning with passion. With Soldier''s Fortune in hand guiding his dance, every single motion he did gave him the impression that he was a part of nature itself.

    In the middle of the night, his sword''s edge bloomed with a soft moonlight. Activating Moon Above.

    His sword sped through the air. His figure disappeared from the courtyard; his velocity exceeded the human''s eyes detection.

    Fell slashed while executing Moon Above, Swordlight dashed through the empty courtyard.

    The Swordlight was in the form of a Half Moon; it cut through the air before dissipating ten meters from its source.

 Chapter 25 Meridians Refinemen

    He watched the Half Moon Swordlight travel thought the courtyard, an incredible feeling of satisfaction coursed through his body as he unleashed the strike.

    "More like this. I need to use the tensile strength of my body to propel my slashing speed to higher levels!" He pondered while adjusting his strike. Another Swordlight in the form of a Half Moon travelled thought the quiet courtyard.

    "No¡­ its still too direct. Slashing with my back take me too much time, causing the blow to loose its effectiveness." Each strike was used as a learning experience.

    A few hour passed where he kept repeating the same move, endless Half Moon could be seen flashing around him. He was rigorous with himself in his training, his back was drenched from sweat and his breathing was getting irregular.

    When Dawn approached, every single move he executed left his muscles and joins ache in pain. He ignored his pain, too focused on his pleasurable swordsmanship training.

    Fell''s breathing was haggard, his eyes were deceiving. He looked unfocused due to his blank look, but his only thoughts revolved around swords.

    He stepped in, spurting a rotation from his ankle to his wrist, syncing every single joins of his body together. His body''s tensile strength was stretched to its limit, making him as if his flesh was gonna get shredded. His blood coursed through his veins, sending streams of blood in his muscles, causing them to contract and bulge. His blade dashed out of its scabbard, before it disappeared from the naked eyes.

    Due to his obsession with swords, Fell''s will was also condensed around his blade.

    This succession of moves may have seemed like they took time, but their execution was instantly done by Fell''s abnormal control of his body.

    A Half Moon traversed the courtyard, its size and speed was nothing comparable to its earlier versions.

    "Success!" he sighed, satisfied with his current slash.

    Dawn accompanied the cold Half Moon through its path. Fell''s eye went blank, his hand moved alone and he softly trusted his sword in front of him, poking the empty space.

    A simple thrust, a simple motion. Its result was the opposite of its simplicity, the usual moonlight that accompanied the edge and tips of his sword disappeared. Burning heat similar to Sunlight appeared near the blades handle, followed by a loud explosion.

    In the void in front of him, a burning light appeared. The light had the same property as the Solar Star that was making its way to the top of sky, it swiftly heated the air around it. Gusts of wind hazardously spread in the small courtyard, leveling up thousands of tree leafs in their paths.

    What Fell was living was called an epiphany, it was a rare state that couldn''t be sought in cultivation. If it was known that he ended up creating a sword skill based on the Moon and the Sun, he would have caused huge waves in the cultivations world. Law based attack were a rarity in First Steps'' cultivators.

    He stayed still after his blows, his eyes full of confusion. His mind was recreating every single motion of his thrust.

    In a single sweep, he created the second part of Moon Above. Guided by Dawn, Sun Below was born.

    Fell stood still for quite some time after his thrust, his last two strikes emptied his body''s reserve. Moon Above and Sun Below left him temporary incapacitated, a single step became impossible to him.

    His body was quivering incessantly, he was having trouble keeping his standing position as his muscles fibers were completely shredded. He kept repeating the move in his mind, branding it in his memory in fear of forgetting it.

    "Sun Below is my second sword move. Its the second part of Moon Above and their mights more than double when used together. Although, its energy consumption is ridiculous, I can''t use it if I don''t cultivate my Energy Path." He roughly assessed after studying the move.

    His physical state soon recovered a bit, making it possible for him to take hazardous steps. He gritted his teeths, supporting the pain that came with every stride. He tripped twice during the short distance to his room, but managed to enter it before anyone saw his shabby state.

    Entering his room, he fell on his bed. He was exhausted from his training, but a beaming smile was on his face.

    He sighted before forcing himself to sit cross legged as he wanted to speed up his recovery by cultivating.

    He gritted his teeth while absorbing Heaven and Earth Energy, cycling it though his dried up meridian. He purified it as much as he could, it was soon absorbed by his body, aiding it in its recovery.

    He noticed that his dried up meridian were being refined and tempered during the process, each cycle made them wider and stronger. His body intrinsic softness and hardness were valuable during the refining, they gave Fell''s energy pathway a characteristic similar to a hard rubber, his flesh''s tensile strength was ridiculously high, while its compressive strength was similarly abnormal.

    Due to those factors, his meridians swiftly recovered to their normal size before further expanding and widening.

    "Wait! If I can further expend them! It could be a way for me to stock Energy." He exclaimed, noticing that he could further temper his foundation.

    The training maniac immediately executed his plan, a single hour was enough for his recovery as it was only his body''s reserve that were depleted.

    He then began filling his energy pathways with Heaven and Earth energy. Streams of energy were rushing in his body before being cycled in his meridians.

    Using his Soul Cultivation, he executed his Hyper Perceptive state. His body turned into an energy magnet, constant streams of energy string flooded his body. Under the constant influx of energy, his meridians were gradually getting filled with a multitude of energy strings.

    After a few hour of absorption, Fell''s energy pathways were filled to the brink.

    "Although it still can''t be considered as a mean of storing energy. It is still enough for a few attacks, and with constant training, I can widen and expand them even more." He though, satisfied by temporary solution.

    "Its time for me to finally leave this city!" He added, impatient to finally explore the world outside of the slums.

 Chapter 26 West Highway

    The Slums were connected to New Casablanca by four highways, one for each cardinal direction. Currently, Fell wandered close to West Highway, his eyes darting everywhere. It was his first time leaving the Slums, his chest pounded in excitement, and a bright smile plastered on his face.

    The tainted sky wasn''t enough to diminish his curiosity, and he was already trying to imagine how the central districts were. Having only heard about them from a few drunkards, he was excited to see those gigantic skyscrapers for the first time.

    Fell left the Slums this morning. As soon as he ended his last cultivation session, he swiftly went to notify Sifiso.

    Sifiso wasn''t surprised by the young man''s future plans. He already expected Fell''s departure since the beginning. The Slums were too little for his meteoric rise and would only block his future progress.

    He helped him amass the necessities he needed for his journey and paid him his gains in the Gladiator''s Heaven. Fell ignored the old man''s money and left him with one of the credit cards he looted from DarkSun.

    The old man later was left dumbstruck by the incredible amount of Credit that he received, it was enough for him to retire and live his life more comfortable in the central districts.

    A few gladiators noticed that he was leaving and decided to escort him with Sifiso. Their kind act touched fell. This place forever engraved in his heart.

    Then he strutted in the direction of Pig''s Paw, the only place that offered him help when he needed it. Moha was in the end, his single paternal figure. He couldn''t afford to leave without bidding his farewell to his old man.

    As soon as he entered the bar, he noticed the weird look on the customers'' faces. The rumors were true, Moha the Butcher got his youth back.

    Moha''s smooth and spotless face left his regular customers smitten as soon they entered the tavern. Although, they swiftly figured out that he was the same as before, a pure native from the Slums.

    He was smoking behind the counter, his cheap brand of cigarettes between his lips. Fell was relieved that Moha''s new appearance didn''t turn into an annoyance for his business. The Butcher''s reputation wasn''t frail enough to be shaken by his softer physique.

    Moha wasn''t surprised by the news either, as he was also expecting Fell''s departure since his first day at the arena. He could see the heaven-defying ambition in the young man''s face, and a simple slum wasn''t enough to block him in his path.

    "Be safe in your road, don''t let people trample on your pride. If you can''t secure victory, at least secure your own life¡­" Moha spouted an endless number of advice, worry and expectation marked on his face.

    Fell could only nod vigorously with a wry smile under the old man''s constant instructions.

    "Now take this and leave before I kick your ass!" Moha gave Fell a carton of cigarettes, turned his back to hide his face. In the side of his eyes, a clear tear glistened before sliding on his smooth cheek.

    Fell didn''t know what to answer. His emotions were in disarray. He grabbed the carton, bowed deeply in the direction of the man and left the bar with long strides.

    Moha kept trembling for some second before turning back. His eyes darted all over the room to see if his protege was still here. He sighed before noticing a card on the counter, smiling he grabbed it and put it on his pocket.

    "Wow, boss became quite the p*ss¡­" a drunkard exclaimed before being slapped in the face by his buddy, stopping him from continuing his nagging.

    "If you wanna die that''s your own choice, but don''t cause me problems with your stupidity" his buddy explained before emptying his glass, he darted from the bar fearful that anyone heard his friend''s stupid remark.

    Everyone who lived in the Slums knew that Moha was untouchable, Darksun served as a clear example for everyone.

    Fell''s disarrayed emotions swiftly cleansed themselves when his excitation kicked in, the idea of travelling around the world made him forget about the Slum.

    He traversed the Slums, moving to the West. His steps were unhurried as he enjoyed his last walk here, his mind pondering about how strong will he have become when he''ll come back.

    Will he become strong enough to change everything here, or will he die while trying to stay true to his path.

    Those were the questions he was asking himself as he strode thought New Casablanca''s Slums, his eyes focused on the lively streets.

    Toddlers were playing close to a puddle, and its color showed how toxic and hazardous it was. Their clear laugher spread in the street. Their innocent vibes were a rarity here. Fell gave them some candies he had in his Spatial Pocket before moving on his road.

    He advanced on his path, stopping every time he met an event that made him want to change this place. He understood something on his road to the central city.

    It wasn''t that the people living in the Slums were filthy and vicious by nature, their environment just shaped them into what they are. His recent encounter with Sifiso and the Gladiators made him believe that even more.

    Understanding this, he promised himself to make this place a paradise in the future. He wanted to destroy the Slums and rebuilt them, offering its inhabitant what they deserved.

    Bolstered by his dreams, his pace accelerated as he approached West Highway. As he was getting close to the Highway, he noticed that the sky was getting darker. Dark fumes and toxic wastes were cast out from a gigantic factory, tainting the atmosphere and blocking the sunlight.

    He stopped on his path, looking at the sad reality in front of him.

    "At least, it isn''t so bad in the Slums," he thought while resuming his journey.

    As he advanced in the empty Highway, the same view repeated itself. The only scenery he got to see was an endless path filled with factories, that were endlessly discharging their wastes in the sky and the earth.

    Those factories owned by the biggest corporations and firms of New Casablanca, their sizes and numbers were so big that they wholly isolated the Slums from the outside world.

    Naturally, the workforce they used came straight from the Slums. Meager salaries and a dangerous workplace were one of the reasons for the Slums high criminality rate. Most of the workers from the factories ended up developing symptoms of perilous sickness while the others didn''t even manage to survive the toxic environment.

    Those factories served as a wall separating New Casablanca''s central districts from its core. The core that used to be Casablanca from one hundred years ago transformed into a gigantic slum, isolated from the modern civilization.

    Fell silently advanced through the Highway, he looked at the scenery unfurl in front of him.

    If it weren''t for him being born in the worst place of the Slums, the living condition in the factories would have horrified him.

    He noticed how remote the Slums were from the central district. In his view, calling it a completely different city wouldn''t have been a problem.

 Chapter 27 Factory Sector Part One

    Chains of factories were perfectly disposed, every piece of land available was put in use. This trend created a landscape full of colossal steely construct that looked very robust with a high point that blows clouds of thick black smoke in the atmosphere.

    As he was going through West Highway, Fell''s face grew continually brighter due to the soft light coming from bulbs built in the road. He stepped on West Highway''s ground with an unhurried but determined pace; his measured footsteps left a deep muffled sound as he advanced on the asphalt. A multitude of shadows followed his steps due to the many bulbs on the ground.

    Only three hours had passed since he began his journey, his earlier curiosity died down when Fell noticed the lack of change in his surroundings. He would have never expected that when trying to go to the Main District, he would have to pass from this sickening place.

    His mental health was starting to degrade, seeing the same factories repeatedly left him with a bad taste in his mouth. And the fact that he didn''t get to meet a single soul since the beginning of his travel aggravated his feeling.

    Fell was really affected by the fact that his surroundings didn''t change at all. He felt like he wasn''t making progress towards his objective. He was going forward with determined steps, but to his mind, it felt like he hadn''t moved from the beginning. Fell was starting to ponder on his sanity as this made him think something wasn''t normal.

    He encountered neither vehicles nor pedestrians on his road, making him feel as if he was the only living being in this no man''s land.

    At some point, he noticed movement in a factory that was on his left. Interested to finally see what the human beings outside of the Slums looked like, he rushed to the other side of the road hoping to get a better view.

    Fell was genuinely eager to see what people outside the slums were like. Aside from his recent encounter with Anzar, He had never seen an outsider of the slums in his lifetime. For all he knew, they could be entirely different, physically and mentally. Maybe Anzar was just a guy with average strength, but to the slums, he was ridiculously strong.

    Fell had so many hypotheses in his mind that were cycling in his mind, one after the other, but he was sure of nothing.

    As Fell kept getting closer to the movements he noticed, he focused his eyesight on the distance; he managed to get a glimpse of what looked like a group of workers.

    They were in the middle of their labor; he could see them lift metal boxes and transport them inside a truck.

    Struck by curiosity, he jumped from the Highway falling twenty meters from the ground. He landed softly on the surface; his fall didn''t produce any sound. Fell used his body''s inherent softness to reduce the impact his fall would have created, making him completely weightless.

    He dashed for a few hundred meters in the direction of the factory, closing the distance in a moment he met a wall of steel wire on his road.

    He leaped over the barricade, crossing it in a simple motion before stopping in his tracks. He felt changes in his surroundings; his senses notified him that he wasn''t alone.

    He calmed his jittery nerves while slowing down to an empty stop. As he approached the building, his breathing cycles unceasingly lengthened. He instinctively reduced his presence while trying to calm himself, as it was his first time sneaking somewhere ever since he became a cultivator.

    He swiftly suppressed his presence before advancing in his path, moving unnoticed through security checks. His feet produced no sound whatsoever, they were like feathers sweeping the ground effortlessly. Fell was left surprised by the degree of automation in the security. There were no humans taking care of it; no guard was present anywhere.

    "I could swear I felt movement around me, but I don''t feel any heat in my surroundings," He thought while sneaking through the last security pass, in front of his eyes was the main building of the factory.

    He stopped in his track and hid behind a wall. His reaction was due to what his eyesight perceived, a group of androids were currently progressing through the entrance of the factory.

    "Who would have thought I would meet Androids here! It''s already worth the detour, how can they move so smoothly with steel as their bone and wire as their veins?" he pondered still hidden from their eyesight.

    He waited for them to enter through the factory before leaving his cover, he crossed the distance between the main building and him in the blink of an eye and stopped in front of the entrance.

    He lifted his head in the direction of the sky, his pupils contracted and a sigh escaped from his lips. From the top of the factory, a billowing torrent of smoke was coughed out by a humongous chimney. The smoke tainted the atmosphere black, polluting it with its filthy and hazardous composition.

    Here darkness was prevalent, but it was quite odd. At an hour where the sun should be at its highest, there was not a single ray of light that reached the ground. The sun couldn''t pierce through the veil of toxicity formed by the thousands of factories.

    He sneaked near the entrance; he checked if someone was close by and barged inside as soon as he cleared any doubt. As he stepped in, he felt a cold sensation on his neck; a shiver went through his body as he instantly took out his weapon from his Spatial Pocket.

    Fell''s nerves tensed up, his back arched like a cat. Staying in that position for a few breaths, a drop of sweat appeared near his temple. It slid down his face before hitting the ground, taking Fell out of his focused state.

    "What was that? I felt as if I was being scanned¡­" he mumbled with a blank look, Fell was trying to deduce what that sensation might have been.

    He brushed the unpleasant feeling and resumed his advance, in front of him was a large hall. The walls and floor were made of a strange alloy; they were very smooth and clean. Not a single speck of dust or stain appeared in this hall.

    Fell took the only way possible, a large passageway that led him straight to the heart of the building. His steps echoed in the dimly lighted hall. Ever since he had that feeling, Fell''s heart was full of unease; his perception was fully projected outward, ready to react to any situation.

    Tensed up, Fell swiftly advanced in his path, tension followed his steps. Finally, he saw the end of it and entered a spacious room.

    The room was circular and in the middle of it was an escalator, it was made of a solid material that looked similar to crystal.

    Looking around and noticing that it was the only way around, he stepped in the elevator and pushed the button.

    "Do all factories have underground structures?", he thought while feeling himself move downward, "I will definitely discover what is going on here!".

 Chapter 28 Factory Sector Part Two

    As Fell felt himself descend straight into the earth, his thoughts were fixed on the factory sector. The bizarre vibes left him intrigued; he wanted to discover whatever was happening down there.

    Feeling that the elevator was decelerating, he focused his senses, sending his questions in the back of his mind. The metallic door of the elevator opened, a red light escaped from it, bathing Fell in a cascade of luminescence.

    Due to his body''s cultivation, the blinding flash of light didn''t bother his eyesight; he could see an ample space in front of him. It was a large foundry filled with steel machinery; the machines kept pulsating flashy red light while mechanically clapping loud booming sounds.

    "An underground facility was necessary, so much noise would have spread everywhere if it wasn''t done so far in the depth of the earth!" He thought while advancing on his road.

    The spacious room was packed to the brim with machines; they were aligned in a weird array of glowing pipes and steel wires. As Fell moved forward, he noticed that some devices were different. Although, his skills in engineering were low and he couldn''t understand what use they had.

    As he observed the mechanical array, he marveled at the skills one needed to craft something so precise. As he advanced in his path, he noticed a machine with several mechanical arms. It moved its arms with surgical precision; each movement was perfect, it was in the middle of assembling something that looked like a hand.

    The mechanic hand was swiftly crafted under the several machine arms'' work, their precision and speed of work left Fell baffled. It promptly grabbed several components and finished the last metallic silver piece before passing it to other machines in front of it, he watched at his sides and noticed that several mechanisms were doing the same. Each one crafting a single body part, the chain started from the simplest part and were gradually assembled as they advanced down the foundry.

    "The first few lines of machine smith and craft the basic component, then the basic component are transported to those armed machines that use the components to craft mechanical body part" he assessed while advancing in the middle of the mechanical array.

    He understood the use of this room; his steps accelerated due to his curiosity. He didn''t get the opportunity to see them clearly before as the androids outside were too far away.

    His curiosity lifted his steps as he swiftly traversed the vast area, jumping over some machine, the way in front of him cleared and he saw what he was looking for.

    In front of him were several android body pieces being assembled by a gigantic machine, it used its multitude of arms to grab the steel pieces and gathered them.

    Fell stopped in its track; he quietly observed the machine executing its orders.

    Not long after that, his curiosity was satiated when the assembling process was finished. In front of him was a metallic android, its stainless white colored steel reflected the ambient red light. Its size was similar to an average human, approaching one hundred and eighty centimeters. Its frame was also identical to a man, its muscles were clearly defined, and the structure of its joints was too similar to a human being.

    Its eyes flashed with a crystal clear blue light, an endless succession of number flashed on its mechanical eyeball.

    Fell was taken back by what was happening; he readied himself as he didn''t know how the android might react.

    The metallic figure trembled as it was in the process of awakening, its code was currently being engraved into its main chip. Its eyes flashed for the last time before calming down, its face turned in the direction of Fell.

    Fell stayed motionless; he was ready to take out Soldier''s Fortune from his Spatial Pocket at any moment.

    "Detecting Human. Range 5 meter. Searching database for authorized access. Zero. Unauthorized Individual. Take security measures."

    The freshly born Android swiftly analyzed Fell''s facial features in the database of authorized personnel, finding no similar element in the database, its defense program was immediately activated.

    Its central engine started rotating, a stream of light flowed from the space between its body part. Energy streamed all over its body, making its way to smaller engines that were situated in its shoulder and knee joints. The joints engines kicked off; an acute noise escalated as energy accumulated in them.

    "Eliminate!" Android announced before as fire escaped from behind its shoulder, projecting him straight in the direction of Fell.

    "Heaven and Earth Energy!" Fell exclaimed in a loud voice, as he sensed that the energy used by the android had the same nature as the one that currently flowed in his meridians.

    Intense heat accumulated in the Android left hand, as his energy steadily flowed in it.

    The Android appeared in front of Fell in the blink of an eye; his left hand pointed right in Fell''s nose. It released its build up energy. An Energy ray rushed from a cannon in its palm, engulfing Fell in a torrent of Heaven and Earth Energy.

    Fell''s view was washed with a torrent of blue, he crossed his arm in a defensive stance and prepared himself to endure the blow. He was soon surprised to discover that it wasn''t dealing any damage to him, it was the exact opposite that was happening.

    As the Energy came in contact with his body, his pores opened and engulfed every speck of Energy that touched him. The freshly absorbed energy entered Fell''s already filled meridians, expanding them and tempering them in the process.

    It cycled through his Energy pathway, purifying his energy in the process. It swiftly rushed thought his meridians, causing him to grit his teeth due to having to support the rough property of the energy.

    It traversed his entire body, causing trembling through his body as it hit the walls of his meridian. A pained grunt escaped from his lips as the hazardous energy started building up in his filled meridians.

    "Crap if this energy continues to build up in my meridians. Even with my bodily strength, I might explode!" Fell cursed in his mind as he was desperately looking for a solution.

 Chapter 29 Factory Sector Part Three

    Fell''s figure disappeared in the blinding Energy Ray; his body wasn''t receiving any damage in the slightest due to absorbing every single speck of energy that came in contact with him.

    He didn''t even get time to celebrate this event; his meridians filled up in the blink of an eye, swiftly reaching their maximum capacity. Fell hadn''t unearthed his Inner Universe yet; the Golden Egg stopped him in his progress.

    "I have no choice; you wanna absorb my energy? Then eat to your fill!" He though in his mind, throwing his head in the back, he howled in the direction of the sky. His heaven-defying nature kicked in; he executed his Hyper Perceptive State.

    He sent his will flowing on the Energy that was ravaging his body. As the energy inside him was both his and the Android''s, he didn''t have the time to brand it as it was too time-consuming.

    He gritted his teeth and tried to control its flow; he wanted to send it straight to his Inner Universe should be, right where the Golden Egg was dwelling.

    His body trembled in pain, having to control this much Energy that wasn''t his was similar to riding a wild horse. Fell couldn''t control the energy cycling inside him, the only thing he could try was to influence its direction.

    His Hyper Perceptive State was particularly useful in this situation. What Fell lacked was time, he couldn''t afford to focus on the Energy that was ravaging his body. He also needed to deal with the android that put him in this state.

    As soon as the pure hazardous stream of Energy approached the location of his Inner Universe, a strange attraction started emanating from it, making it flow straight inside of it.

    The inside of his Inner Universe was filled with a sea of blue light, The light was projected from the massive amount of Energy inside of him. In the middle of the wave of hazardous Energy was a Golden Egg, its surface was spotless, and it cast off a weird golden halo.

    As soon as a string of Energy touched it, it swiftly disappeared inside of it, used as a nutrient by the golden oddity. As if it enjoyed its first meal for a long time, it promptly began devouring the sea of Energy that swirled around it.

    The Golden Egg entirely gobbled the erratic Heaven and Earth Energy inside his Inner Universe; its golden halo intensified and spread thought Fell''s entire body. The halo attracted the unpredictable Energy in his meridians, it swiftly dashed through his pathways in the direction of the Golden Egg, tempering and refining them in the same process.

    All of this happened in the blink of an eye, from the moment Fell was engulfed in the Energy Ray to the calamity he had to pass.

    "Time for the comeback!" he clenched his fist and dashed through the Energy Blast, he looked similar to a fish swimming in the direction opposite to the stream.

    Having been so close to death due to an attack, Fell''s eyes were fiery red. He sent his fist straight to the origin of the Energy Ray, striking in the middle of the Androids left palm. The fist''s impact left a deep muffled sound in the room, Fell immediately pounded forward, sending a multitude of fist attack in the direction of the Android.

    His fists hit straight in the middle of the Android''s chest, leaving deep dents in his metallic chest. His pounding forced him to step several times backward, Fell followed him with larges steps that left deep imprints in the solid floor.

    "This Android is really impressive, those few hits would have been enough to bend a few stacked metal plates. What kind of metal is his frame constructed with?" He though while sending a flurry of attacks.

    "Although it doesn''t seem very be good at close quarter combat, its physical constitution is incredible, but its fighting experience is terrifyingly low!" He pondered while sending a low kick that destabilized the Android; Fell linked his hit with a roundhouse kick that connected with its chin, leaving a deep dent in the middle of his chest.

    Fell swiftly followed with an explosive axe kick, he added his body''s intrinsic softness to execute the blow. His kick connected directly on top of the Android''s head, it sent him crashing straight on the floor.

    Although his body was significantly strong, in the end, Fell was only made of flesh and blood. He couldn''t compare with the incredible durability of the machine in front of him.

    If it weren''t for the fact that the Android didn''t know how to use its body, he wouldn''t have embedded it so quickly in the steel floor.

    "Guess I''ll enjoy pounding it a few more time before I finish it!" He thought while enjoying the sensation of hitting the Android to his content.

    Even if Fell preferred using a sword when fighting, he still loved exchanging blows with his body. The feeling of each fist and leg blow left him with pleasurable tingles; a beaming smile was on his face as he watched the Android mechanically get up.

    The Android was on his feet again; his eyes flashed with a crystal clear blue light. It changed its position, moving his body''s center of gravity a few centimeters downward.

    Fell noticed the details; his eyes flashed in surprised. The Android used their few exchanges to correct its own stance, fixing most of its inherent weak points with an indistinguishable motion.

    "Oh! This is getting even more interesting!"

    His smile soon disappeared from his lips as a metallic fist appeared in front of his eyes. He gritted his teeth''s and prepared himself for the hit that was going to connect with his face. As soon as the blow hit Fell on his chin, he moved backwards using the Android''s momentum.

    "Cr*p, I underestimated its learning potential. So that''s the true strength of this machine!" He assessed while taking out his weapon. Soldier''s Fortune appeared in his hand, ready to be unsheathed.

 Chapter 30 Factory Sector Part Four

    The Android''s mechanic eyeballs flashed with a blinding blue light; Its vision was aimed straight at Fell''s figure. Fell didn''t make the same mistake twice and immediately unsheathed his blade, Soldier''s Fortune was taken out of its scabbard.

    "Moon Above!" He executed his first sword skill, the edges of his swords projected blinding lights in his surroundings.

    Strings of moonlight bloomed on the edges and tip of his blade. He swiftly rotated his three cultivation bases, fully prepared to end the fight in a single attack.

    His Heaven and Earth Energy coursed through his body, rushing in his right hand. As his energy flowed in his sword, it acquired an exceedingly sharp nature.

    His blood raced through his blood vessels, his veins bulged and could be seen crawling under his skin. As he completely rotated his Body''s cultivation base, his skin reddened while the potency of his life force was completely unearthed.

    An incredible amount of heat was building up in his body; his body gradually influenced his surroundings. The areas close to Fell''s body warped slightly as his fiery life force heated the air surrounding him.

    His Will exploded outward; he executed his Hyper Perceptive state making his brain kickoff like an engine. He could perceive every single movement in the space surrounding him.

    For the first time ever since his he began his journey as a cultivator, he completely rotated his three cultivation base. The machines learning potential forced him to show his cards, he couldn''t afford to make it a battle of attrition as he didn''t know what danger might dwell in the factory sector.

    As if it understood Fell''s intention, the Android''s main and sub-engine rotated at their maximum intensity. Booming sounds spread through the noisy room as it accumulated the entirety of its energy, crystal clear blue light extended out of his metallic frame, basking its physique with an azure shade.

    Fell''s eyes burned with a fiery determination; his tense muscles were bulging out as his potent blood was released through the entirety of his body.

    The newly born Android eyes were flashing with a blinding blue light. Even before the machine executed its attacks, its computing abilities were used to determine the nature of Fell''s blow.

    Time seemed to stop, the constant rattling coming from the machines stopped. Both opponents moved at the same time; their feet left deep burning imprints on the steel floor.

    They crossed the distance between each other in a single step; their figures produced sonic booms as their speed surpassed sonic velocity.

    Fell opened the dance, he performed several strokes in a single move, aiming straight at the Android joints. His goal was to cripple the opponent''s Sub Engine swiftly, he wanted to lessen the opponent damage potential from the start.

    The android''s computation chip promptly estimated its next course of action, shifting its body to the side with a slight move, it dodged the majority of Fell''s stroke with ease.

    Unfortunately, it didn''t have enough time to dodge his last stroke as Fell pierced the sub-engine in its left shoulder. Soldier''s Fortune powered with Moon Above drilled deep in the Android''s left shoulder, destroying it in a single blow.

    This exchange wasn''t free for Fell as the Android retaliated as soon as it noticed that it couldn''t avoid Fell''s thrust. It clenched its iron fist, sending it to crash right in the middle of Fell''s thoracic cage.

    His torso caved in sending his blood tumbled in reverse; the impact shattered his ribcage, making him cough a mouthful of blood. He gritted his teeth and swallowed the rest of the blood; his unyielding nature forced himself not to step back.

    On the contrary, he responded with a flurry of sword strike that left the Android puzzled. The machine was left confused due to the tenacity of the human it was fighting.

    According to its data, most of its attacks should have defeated the intruder. But in front of it, the young human was still advancing forward after taking a fist that could pass through concrete with no difficulty.

    "I can''t afford to keep this fight draw even more!" he assessed while dodging an Energy beam that the Android aimed at his face.

    He pressed forward after regaining his balance, using his sword''s weight to move himself. He slammed his sword downward, aiming to squash the Android''s chip with his blade''s weight.

    The impact of the strike produced an ear-piercing noise that spread through the ample sized room; the blade slammed on the Android''s head like a hammer striking hot steel.

    Their collision made both of them step back. Fell was forced half a step backward, the knockback of his blow left him trembling. The space between his thumb and his forefinger was bleeding, but a broad smile was on his face.

    Even if his blow didn''t destroy the Androids head, he managed to force him back and left a deep cleave in the middle of his crown. On top of the Android''s skull was a crack that descended all the way down to the center of its eyebrows.

    "A chance!", He rushed forward with his Soldier''s Blade in front of him. All the content of his meridians went to his right hand; he was powering Moon Above with every single bit of Heaven and Earth energy that he had.

    His sword flashed with a blinding light, the moonlight strings that danced in the edges and tip of his sword sublimated, transforming into a single blue and silver halo that enclosed the entirety of his sword.

    He sent a simple slash forward with a fluid motion, a swordlight rushed out of his sword, turning into a silver blue Half Moon that was humming as it traveled through the air.

    The swordlight produced by Moon Above hit the dazzled Android in the middle of its body, the sharpness of the Energy cut straight through the Android''s steel frame.

    A thick line appeared right in the middle of the Android''s body; its length traveled through the Android''s whole body!

 Chapter 31 Factory Sector Part Five

    A dazzling light escaped from the sword wound in the middle of the Androids torso, the thick line extended all the way to his metallic skull, sectioning him in two.

    Fell breathed out as he watched the Android crumbled in half on the floor, his respiration was weak as a deep fist imprint could be visible on his chest.

    When Fell took the hit, his chest caved in and half of his ribs shattered, their bone fragments pierced through his lungs, causing him to grit his teeth in pain every time he used his diaphragm.

    "That was close." He thought while approaching the dismembered Android; its eyes were still flashing with a solid blue light.

    He moved forward while fixating its crystal-clear mechanic eyeballs, his sluggish steps resonated in the noisy room. A shiver traversed his body; fear took upon his heart as he thought of the repercussion that could have happened if he delayed the fight.

    "This machine''s learning potential is terrifying. Our fight lasted only for a few moments, but it managed to injure me this much."

    He asked himself what their limit was, how strong could the Android have gotten if he left him the time to develop its fighting experience.

    "I can''t afford to test their limit. As long as I''m in unknown territory, I should play it safe and defeat them before they turn into threats!" Fell decided as he stopped in his track. The left part of the android''s head was close to his feet; Fell could see its eyes incessantly flash with a crystal-clear blue light.

    Its eyes produced an intense light as if it was burning the entirety of its life force in its last breath. Its lips trembled before opening, a deep buzzing voice originating from its electronic vocal cord escaped from them.

    "Eliminate Intruder. Operation Failed. Execute Protocol 62. Authorization in process. Access Denied. Execute Protocol 0000. Execute Countdown. 10. 9. 8. 7¡­" A bright flare bloomed on its left dissected part, energy accumulated in the spot where its heart was.

    "Cr*p! Why can''t you just die!" he thought while trying to rush outside the room. His sluggish steps turned into a forced long stride that were powered with his sheer willpower.

    "6. 5. 4¡­" Noticing that he couldn''t leave the room in time, he changed his initial plan.

    Dashing to his left, he noticed a small spot between two machines that could shield him. He immediately slid on the steely floor, sneaking under a line of work instrument.

    "3. 2."

    He slipped between two furnaces that blocked his field of view, and swiftly put his head between his arms.

    "1." An incandescent blue light flared from the Androids heart; deep crystal-clear light rushed out of the Androids body.

    The light swiftly grew up in size, turning into a gigantic halo of light that ate the space of the Foundry. The dome of light expanded in the blink of an eye, it encompassed the entirety of the room filling it with a bright blue hue.

    Fell didn''t expect this situation to happen, the explosion that he was waiting for didn''t occur. Instead, his vision was blinded by the crystal blue light, giving the place a strange vibe.

    The light expanded further to its limit, exceeding the underground construct. Before it swiftly rushed back, before entering the Androids body.

    "Data Collected." A fragmented voice escaped from its lips, the crystal-clear light in the depth of its eyes died.

    A dumbfounded expression was plastered on Fell''s face; his mouth was thoroughly unlocked as if his chin was dislocated.

    "Fuck!" Fell cursed while leaving his hideout. He tiptoed in the direction of the inanimate Android; his eyesight fixed on its metallic frame, he was ready to run at any moment''s notice.

    He safely approached the dismembered Android, his nerves were tensed, and his breath was weak. His eyes fixated the machine, ready to catch any slight movement.

    Noticing that it genuinely was dead, he breathed out, and a tired sigh escaped from his lips.

    Soon shame took over him as he remembered his past action, he swiftly kicked the androids head.

    "Take this! Take this! Having to make me crawl and hide like a bug!" He thought out loud as he lashed his anger on the Androids carcass.

    He sent a few kicks crashing on the metallic frame; he emptied his angered heart on its corpse. Cursing and spitting on it, he soon finished clearing his mind.

    Fell rarely reacted this way; he always used to control and filter his feelings. But ever since he cleared his mental demons in his first Soul cultivation session, he began acting in accordance with his beliefs.

    Thus, his childish act of beating the Androids dead body was his way of clearing his feelings; he soon finished bullying the steely lifeless body.

    A bashful grin appeared on his face as he finished calming down, he looked down at the few scattered body parts with a satisfied smile before moving forward.

    He left the Foundry and arrived in a large passageway. Several doors could be seen on the side of the hall, going Fell puzzled in front of the maze-like construct.

    He stepped in the direction of the first door on his left, the silver door automatically opened in front of him. Stepping in, he examined the room with his blade in hand; his eyes darted everywhere as he was ready to strike at any moment.

    His tensed nerves calmed down when he noticed that the room he entered was empty, he breathed out while identifying its content.

    The room wasn''t too big. In fact, compared to the gigantic Foundry, it could be called a locker. In the middle of the narrow room was a square box, it was made of the same alloy that was used to construct the underground facility, an incredibly durable steel that could even resist Fell''s monstrous punch.

    "Leaving my body in this state will only hinder me in my path. Even if my recovery speed is astonishing, I should play it safe and focus on recovering before advancing more." He assessed before sitting on top of the square box.

    He closed his eyes, focusing himself on controlling his thin breath. Not long after that, his breathing spread through the small room, producing ripples in the air.

 Chapter 32 War Assist AI Part One

    He soon entered a deep meditative state, Fell''s mind focused on recovering from his last fight. He sent his will spread through his body, encompassing every single cell that composed his body.

    Fell could feel the bone fragments of his ribcage penetrate his lung every time he inhaled, and he gritted his teeth as he forced himself to will his recovery with his Soul Cultivation base.

    This action of him was similar to auto persuasion. But, what Fell was currently doing was forcing his body to speed his recovery.

    His attempt succeeded as he started feeling his bones mend themselves, The pain of his bones growing made him breathe sharply. He trembled like a string from the pain, before coughing up a mouthful of a dark substance.

    The dark substance was composed of the bone fragments that were in his lungs and clogged blood that accumulated in his last fight. Dizziness hit him as he kept clearing his lungs, he could feel his pores open up, expelling a mixture of sweat and blood.

    Fell felt as if his head was going to explode, his body worked in an overdrive cleansing and recovering from his last fight. An unusual number of signals were sent to his brain, if it weren''t for his experience when using the Hyper Perceptive state he would have already fallen unconscious, his mind would have shut down.

    Fell spent the next few minutes shouldering the pain. He was clenching his fists so hard that his nails deeply embedded themselves in his palms, making his fists red. He was coughing a few mouthfuls of blood every few seconds; his body was clearing itself.

    Even in this pain, he managed to stay clear-headed, he could clearly feel the signal that his nerves were sending him. If the average intensity of his nerve impulse was a slight electric signal, then, right now his nerve impulses had the might of lightning, endlessly clapping and thundering, their unrestrained repetition kept Fell in an endless cycle of pain.

    Hopefully, the last bone fragment that was in his lungs was evacuated in his last cough, ending the young man''s pain. His lung injury was his harshest damage; his pain instantly lessened as soon as it healed.

    Breathing out, he sighed and took out some water to nourish his dehydrated body. The water cleared the residue of blood that was on his mouth as it travelled down his throat, his headache cleared out as he felt the liquid fill his body.

    His body expelled the majority of its water during its recovery, working at a higher intensity had a few drawbacks.

    One of them was the apparent sharp pain that would follow the cultivators during the recovery, and the other was the severe dehydration that the cultivator would develop. Those downsides were the harsh costs that every Soul cultivator would pay when trying to accelerate their body''s natural recovery with their Will.

    He gulped three water bottle in succession, filling his body with just what he needed. A satisfied sigh escaped from his lips.

    "Cultivators really have it rough,", he thought while getting up, "Time to continue!".

    He got up and strode to the metallic door, the door opened in front of him. His feet stopped just when he was leaving the room; a weird shine appeared in his eyes.

    He looked back turning his neck. He looked at the content of the narrow room with a deep shine in his eyes. His eyes sighted straight on the spot where he was sitting, the metallic box resurfaced in his mind, awakening his curiosity.

    He approached the square box with sneaky steps. His steps were relaxed as he had already done what he was going to accomplish.

    He stopped in front of the chest, and his greed could be clearly seen in his face. He crouched to identify if the chest could be opened, his hand travelled everywhere searching for a button to press.

    His hand stopped, he could feel a slight dent in one side of the chest.

    "Got you!" he thought before pressing on it. Hearing a small click, a smile appeared on his face.

    He heard several sound rattle in the inside of the chest; steam escaped from the corner of the chest before opening in front of Fell.

    What Fell saw inside was a pile of grey colored cloth, on top of them was a weird shaped monocle.

    Intrigued, he took out the monocle and approached it near his face. Its shape was rectangular, and strangely it didn''t have any lens.

    He swiftly found out how to use and put in on his left eye, he strapped it close to his eyebrow and pressed on its switch.

    A flash of light appeared in the room, his right eye was still the same, but his left eye had a weird purple filter on it.

    "War Assist AI 04985795. Begin Integration." He heard those two sentences reverberate in his minds, followed by a sharp drilling buzz.

    "It''s fusing with me!" he thought with a wry smile, ready to shoulder a burning pain.

    Weirdly, he didn''t feel the expected pain that was going to send his mind in rambles. In fact, he felt no pain even when sensing that the monocle was merging with his left eye.

    The process ended after a few breaths. Fell opened his left eye, and a deep purple light flashed in the dimly lighted room.

    The phenomenon soon calmed down, Fell''s left vision returned to its normal state. His eye color was still the same amber, except for his left eye that had a strange purple hue in the middle of it.

    "So what use does it have?"

    "Assist AI is ready to serve you sir!" a silvery voice answered his question in his mind.

    "What the hell!" Fell barked while unsheathing Soldier''s Fortune.

    Sword in hand, his eyes darted everywhere in the small room, looking for the feminine voice he just heard.

    "No need to look around for me. I''m part of you." The soft voice appeared chocking Fell dumb again. His gaping jaw was close to stroking the floor.

 Chapter 33 War Assist AI Part Two

    "How can you speak in my head?" the second time the pearly voice echoed in his mind, he noticed that there was no movement in the air surrounding it.

    Sound waves produced a slight change in the air, and Fell could feel it due to his sharp senses.

    "I was created this way; my goal is to assist the individual I fuse with, I am equipped with a strong processor and am thus capable of strong computation ability." The AI responded.

    Fell''s eyes flashed, he swiftly accepted that he just integrated with an AI. In the end, it could only be beneficial in his cultivation''s path.

    "What are your capacities?" He asked after pondering.

    A slight grunt escaped from his lips; his eyes flashed in surprise as he felt a familiar sensation tingle his brain. He could perceive his mind get engraved, flashes of information appeared in front of his eyes.

    A list of information came into view in his mind. He closed his eyes, focusing himself on digesting the knowledge.

    War Assist AI was conceived with a single goal in mind, to assist a soldier in their tasks. In the beginning, it was only created to ease the load of information that a soldier had to learn; this was a necessity as most soldiers couldn''t spend their precious time book-worming.

    War Assist AI could help its host fluidly assimilate information; its only downside was the pain that would happen during the knowledge transfer.

    Fell found a few similarities with Earth''s knowledge transfer and the cultivator''s crystal. The first one could only turn the knowledge into short term memory, needing the individual to digest the knowledge and memorise it. It was different for the cultivators as they could engrave the knowledge deep in the brain, turning them into long term memories without any effort from them.

    Thankfully for Fell, he already grew accustomed to the pain of knowledge transfer, and as a cultivator, the pain didn''t bother him in general.

    But enhancing its host''s learning potential wasn''t its only use, it was also fully equipped to assist a soldier in the field. Its sensory ability was to be reckoned, and it could turn any normal human into a super soldier capable of sensing any slight movement in his surroundings.

    Fell''s left eyes gleamed with a deep purple light, radiating every few second in the dimly lighted room. His hand was rested on his chin as he was deep in thought, he was already thinking about the potential of the Assist IA.

    Turning his head to the left, he looked in the rest of the chest''s content.

    "What are those?" He thought while pointing at the pile of cloth with his finger.

    "Combat Suits. Made of the best material possible, They are capable of resisting through fire and water."

    "Good!" he though while grabbing the combat suit, his current attire got shredded during his last fight. Its cleanliness was also to be questioned as his pores evacuated a sizable amount of filth during his accelerated recovery.

    He swiftly undressed, and wiped his skin clear; he then wore the suit. At first, he was afraid that it wasn''t going to be his size; But he was pleasantly surprised that the material had quite the amount of stretching potential.

    The combat suit was made of two part. The first one would fit close to the wearer, turning into the second layer of skin; The second part was a long grey coat, a pair of shiny black boots and trousers.

    He could feel that even he would have to use his full strength to shred it in bits. As he donned the dress, he could feel the suit slide on the surface of his skin, giving him the same sensation as if a snake was crawling on him.

    The combat suit fitted perfectly on his body, as it was made to stick close to his skin, it completely encased his whole body.

    He finished wearing the rest of his outfit. He looked at himself in the reflection of the metallic wall, a grin appeared on his face as he gazed at his appearance.

    "Quite dashing." He declared with a smile.

    His combat suit was comfortable and didn''t restrict his movement. Even with something sticking so close to his body, he didn''t feel hot; On the contrary, he could feel a cooling flow of air movement between his skin and the suit, giving him a refreshing feel.

    He patted his cloth and walked out of the room, his steps were confident, and he was ready to discover the rest of the factory''s content.

    As he walked along the long pathway, he passed next several metallic doors that were in his sides.

    He began thinking about the succession of event that just happened.

    "First it was those androids, they are frighteningly solid and are fully capable of fighting First Steps cultivators. Their learning potential is their most dangerous aspect as they evolve as long they survive in the battlefield."

    "Then the War Assist AI that could turn normal soldiers into highly efficient killing machines, equipped with the combat suit, their might approaching first realm cultivator".

    "Looks like the world outside is even more dangerous than the Slums" he pondered, lost in deep thought.

    He lost himself deeply in his thoughts, memories of his past years in the Slums flashed in his mind.

    "With so much battle prowess, the main districts should have complete control on the Slums, how did DarkSun Gang even managed to attain that much influence." Questions appeared in succession; his brain flashed as he felt himself close to finding a critical truth.

    "Now that I notice, the police force didn''t appear in the Slums for quite a long time."

    "Did they abandon the slums, leaving it in its self-sufficiency?"

    "Or didn''t they have the time or resource to control it?"

    He paused in his track, feeling as if he lacked a final piece to complete his thinking. A thin veil was blocking his mind from the truth, preventing him from attaining any conclusion.

    He resumed his steps, his sturdy boots causing deep muffled sound on the steel floor.

 Chapter 34 War Assist AI Part Three

    He walked for a few minutes in the long passageway, his lone steps echoed in the quiet place.

    Curiosity made him check the content of a few other rooms, opening a second chest, he found the exact same armament in them.

    He left its contents unchecked and resumed his exploration. After walking around for a few more minutes, he arrived at the end of the long passageway.

    His steps accelerated as he was sick of seeing the same view; Fell grew up in the slums, and the architecture there was hazardous, and every street he walked along was different from the other.

    Ever since he began his journey, he was tired of seeing the same scenery repeat itself.

    He barged out of the long passageway and arrived in a massive place. The ceiling of the room elevated for a few hundred meters, and its depth was as ridiculous; Even with his eyesight that could spot a fly in a hundred-meter radius, he couldn''t see the end of the room from the entrance.

    He was breathless in front of the gigantic construct; he stared wide-eyed as his heart pounded against his chest. The breathtaking magnitude of the construct left him frozen on the cold metallic floor.

    Unfortunately, he soon discovered that the room littered with long trails of pods. Their oval shape made Fell think that the room was filled with metallic eggshells the size of an average human.

    As he resumed his steps and approached one of them, he noticed several intricate lines travel along the steely egg surface; Fell assessed that it was their opening.

    The room''s source of light came from lamps embedded on the floor; a long trail of soft light illuminated Fell''s face as he advanced through the room.

    "If each pod contains an Android, then just this factory''s firepower is heaven-defying. What the hell is going on, is this the only factory that builds Androids or do all of them do." He shivered as those thoughts traveled in his mind.

    His steps accelerated as he sent a command to the AI,

    "Calculate the number of pods" he ordered, his left eye flashed with a soft purple light. A line of number appeared in his vision; it kept rising as he advanced in his path.

    After a few minutes of hastened steps, he arrived at the end of the gargantuan place.

    "A depth of two kilometers, a height of a few hundred meters. This place is ridiculous, how much workforce does one need to construct an underground facility this big."

    "Why would they even need to construct it underground. And those factories are clearly not used for a commercial purpose; such ridiculous production rate isn''t without a price¡­"

    "Just this factory alone produces enough firepower to overwhelm a city in a single night." He thought while imagining the result of a combined assault from all the Androids.

    Just the combined use of their Energy Ray could make a mountain vanish from Earth, turning it into piles of smoldering dust.

    Having seen everything that was inside the underground facility he turned back and started retracing his steps. His thoughts endlessly revolved on what was happening in New Casablanca; His intuition told him that he was onto something, but he still couldn''t entirely put his finger on it.

    He threw his thoughts in the back of his head and accelerated his pace. He swiftly arrived at the beginning of the long passageway, he turned his head back looked deeply at the humongous room for the last time before resuming his steps.

    His face was calm as he began leaving the underground facility, his curiosity died down as no smile could be seen on his youthful face. In the depth of his eyes, a small trace of worry was drawn as he couldn''t stop himself from being absorbed by the weird succession of events.

    "Let''s hope that it''s the only one," he thought while hastening his pace, he soon arrived in the foundry, he stepped across the Androids remains that littered the floor.

    The machine rattling only made him hurry up, he rushed through the brimming room. Passing through the machines with ease, he arrived in front of the elevator.

    As the vibes coming from the place turned into a source of worry, he swiftly stepped in the elevator and pushed the switch.

    As he felt himself ascend through the crust of the Earth, he sent a command to the AI.

    "Begin calculating the depth of the underground facility.", He ordered while pondering, "How far is this construct from the surface of Earth?"

    His ascension took quite some time, showing him again how far the underground facility was from the surface of the Earth.

    He couldn''t understand the need of so much secrecy, "Are they afraid of the Slums revolting and overthrowing them?"

    "No!", he immediately denied it, "the Main Districts influence is too big, and their manpower isn''t even similar."

    "Why the need for so much secrecy," Fell thought while he felt the elevator stop, he looked at the side of his left eyes view; He could see the result of his last command, he breathed sharply before resuming his track.

    "Three kilometers underground, what a ridiculous depth." He assessed while repeatedly moving his head to the sides; he left the factory with a wry smirk on his lips.

    He arrived in the lobby, the factory''s main entrance was in front of his view. He strode thought the room; his lone steps echoed in the oval-shaped room.

    He finally left the building and deeply breathed in. Passing the last few hours deep underground was a new experience for him, and it left him suffocated to some extent.

    As soon as he stepped out, his chest rose as he took a deep inhale. As he exhaled, he felt his mind clear up, the mess that was caused by his deep thinking was flushed out of his head.

    Suddenly, high pitched sounds started blaring around him. The sounds were highly similar to the Androids engine.

    Before he even had the time to turn his head to check his surroundings, a deep muffled voice resounded in the still place.

    "Put your hands up and freeze, bat an eyelid, you get shot!" Barked the suppressed voice menacingly. The tone of the voice showed that they weren''t fooling around. If Fell moved the wrong way, they would definitely execute their threats.

 Chapter 35 War Assist AI Part Four

    Fell froze in place as he heard the warning. He calmly raised his arms over his head and waited for further instructions.

    "Good, stay in that position. It seems you do understand our language, why did you come here?" The suppressed voice echoed again.

    Fell swiftly sensed that it came from ten meters from him, he immediately sent an order for the AI to scan his surroundings.

    "No need to use your Assist AI to scan our numbers or position, you are surrounded by an assault team from New Casablanca''s Police Force." Another suppressed voice spoke in a languid manner. Showing Fell that they sensed his AI scan.

    Fell received their position from his Assist AI. His left eyes twinkled with a soft purple light; a holographic screen appeared in front of him. He swiftly understood that it was a map of his surroundings, five red marks could be seen flashing in a radius of twenty meters around him.

    "I think this is a misunderstanding," explained Fell with a calm voice.

    As he was currently going to New Casablanca''s Main Districts, he wanted to avoid direct confrontation with its Police Force.

    "What kind of misunderstanding, we just sensed your AI scan. You clearly just stole military equipment!" A third suppressed voice resounded, its tone was husky and deep. Probably a middle-aged man deduced Fell.

    "What is your purpose in coming here!?" Another member of the Assault team spoke, its penetrating voice clapped through the quiet courtyard.

    Fell wracked his brain for his next answer. Although he wasn''t fearful of them, he was adamant on avoiding conflict with them.

    He calmly turned his head to his right and looked straight in the direction of the middle-aged man. He softly spoke in a calm tone, completely ignoring the aggressive member.

    "I am a native from the Slums, I was making my way through West Highway and got bored from the scenery.", he paused for a breath and leisurely resumed his speech, "As a result of seeing the endless sea of Factory during my journey, I got curious and decided to enter one."

    "And you didn''t think that it would be a problem? You even stole military equipment and destroyed one of the state''s resource!" the intimidating voice immediately barked. The tone clearly showed that he didn''t trust a single bit of Fell''s explanation.

    "Calm down Johnny. At least, it wasn''t the worst case scenario." A monotonous soft voice interrupted the fiery-tempered man.

    Fell''s eyes flashed as he heard the fourth member of the Assault Team mention a worst case scenario. He reflected on what might New Casablanca''s Police Force term as a worst-case scenario.

    "Hahahaha, so he''s just a child from the Slums." A childish voice loudly exclaimed while laughing.

    "A child that managed to destroy one of those units." The penetrating voice loudly responded. The unit he referred to was the Androids that Fell destroyed during his underground exploration.

    Fell calmly watched the Police Force interaction, a wry smile appeared on his face when they called him a child.

    It wasn''t his fault, ever since he began his cultivation journey, his appearance turned even more juvenile that before. He even feared that he might turn back into his early teenage years if he breakthrough into the Second Realm.

    "Anyway kid, you''re gonna have to follow us to the Police Station in the Main Distri..." The middle-aged member of the Assault team explained

    "Sure!" said Fell, briskly interrupting the police officer in the middle of his explanation. As he wanted to go to the Main Districts, following them would be the quickest road to his objective.

    As for what might happen in the Police Station, he was sure that they wouldn''t go heavy handed on him. If the worst should happen, Fell was confident in his flight skill. He figured it wouldn''t be too difficult to escape from a police station.

    "Chief Walter, I''ll take care of his detention!" The fiery voice resounded. Johnny immediately executed his words, a roaring vibration thundered.

    "Wait!" Walter ordered with a firm tone. He knew that his fiery-tempered subordinate was hard to manage.

    Johnny ignited the propellers of his MechSuit, he barged out of his hidden position and crossed the distance between him and Fell in a single moment.

    Fell finally saw his aggressive interlocutor. Johnny was wearing a golden MechSuit that encompassed his whole body; he swiftly noticed the similarity between the Androids frame and the armor that was in front of him.

    "Looks like the Combat Suit are just the beginning, Earth''s technology is remarkable!" this thought flashed through his mind as he dodged Johnny''s grab with ease.

    "Come over here! You sly bastard!" a suppressed howl appeared from under his helmet, his anger accentuated as he didn''t expect the frail man to dodge his clutch easily.

    "Sly?" Fell''s lips opened in surprise; his eyes gleamed as a smile appeared on his face.

    Johnny''s back propellers ignited showering the space behind him with a rain of sparks, sending the maximum energy output to his back. His golden frame blurred and instantly appeared in front of Fell. His fist was clenched, ready to land straight onto Fell''s jaw.

    Fell could see his opponent burning intent to kill him, Johnny''s eyes were burning with seething anger.

    "STOP!" the assault team chief ordered as he detected Johny''s intent to incapacitate the young man coming from the slums.

    A serious expression replaced Fell''s smile; his brain, assisted with the AI, swiftly calculated the angle of the blow. He quickly saw the fists trajectory and sent his right hand straight in the middle of it.

    As he saw the two fists approach each other. Their size was completely different, one of them was coated and protected by the MechSuit armor. While the other was a simple human fist, gently advancing in the direction of the armored fist.

    A sigh escaped from his lips as he saw the scene unravel in front of him. He could already see the metallic fist crush and cripple the young man''s hand; he would be considered lucky if he even survived the devastating blow.

    "If he survives this fists confrontation, I''ll make my best to heal him and add him in the team. So much potential shouldn''t be hidden in the Slums!" he instantly thought as he saw the two fists infinitely draw close to each other.

    The fiery and aggressive fist finally came in contact with the soft and fragile hand. However, no sound of crushed flesh and bones was heard.

    Right before the impact of the two fists, Fell swiftly opened his hand and caught the armored fist in his palm. He smoothly reversed his motion with the fiery fist firmly grasped in his hand; large veins appeared from under his skin as he exerted his might.

    Johnny grunted in surprise as he didn''t expect this result, he could feel his feet leave the ground. His vision was shaking, and he could only see his surrounding spin as if he had too much liquor. In the middle of the hazardous rotation, he could feel that he was throwing up the content of his empty stomach inside his helmet.

    Fell was bullying Johnny as if he was a younger kid in the playground. Fell eventually stopped messing around with him and savagely slammed him on the ground. Johnny''s brain shook everywhere inside his skull due to his collision with the ground. He still didn''t know what happened as he was knocked unconscious.

    Silence permeated in the factory; the assault team''s mouths were gaping as they were utterly shocked by the young man''s prowess.

    "A shoulder throw?" Ronnie''s voice escaped from under his mechanic helmet, contrary to his habitual dull tone. His voice trembled as it spread through the quiet place.

    He couldn''t understand how such a frail human could lift and slam a MechSuit armored Johnny. Everybody knew it; if it weren''t for the Assist AI that moved the MechSuit, no one would be able to take a single step while wearing them.

 Chapter 36 War Assist AI Part Five

    Ronnie''s reaction awakened the rest of the Assault Team from their stupor. They couldn''t believe they what they were seeing, the juvenile faced man took out Johnny one on one without any MechSuit. And the worst was that he managed to incapacitate one of New Casablanca''s strongest police officer in a single move.

    "You call that a shoulder throw?" Rose''s soft voice resounded in disbelief; her index finger was pointing in the direction of Fell''s direction.

    "Hahahaha, it looked more like a child playing with his teddy bear!" Dorothy''s childish giggle resounded, "Do it again Brother!"

    A wry smile appeared on Fell''s face as he heard Dorothy''s infantile request, he approached Johnny and swiftly checked the fiery man''s state.

    The golden MechSuit shouldered most of the impact''s strength; Johnny only fell unconscious due to a slight brain concussion. He exhaled a stress-relieving sigh as he came to the realization that he almost f*cked up.

    Fell turned around in the direction of the Assault Team''s Chief, a bashful expression drawn on his face.

    "I really didn''t mean for that¡­" he began babbling, moving his hands up and down as he tried explaining himself.

    Walter softly sighed, his experienced eyes instantly understood the situation. Johnny had the bad luck to encounter a cultivator. That would explain the black-haired man''s extraordinary might.

    "Do you really come from the Slums?" He asked while trying to control his tone. Being the chief of New Casablanca''s Assault Team made him see a lot in his life, today''s experience wasn''t enough to chock him still.

    Fell nodded in the chief''s direction. His answer sent the chief''s heart in turmoil, Walter eyes softly shined under his helmet.

    "What a hidden gem." Walter thought in his mind while leaving his hideout.

    Fell heard the police officer''s loud steps approach him. his MechSuit clattered as he strode forward, the metallic part that composed the armor were brushing against each other, producing an annoying rattling sound every time he moved his body.

    He soon saw a spotless grey suit that calmly marched in his direction. Fell felt that the middle-aged man didn''t have any evil intention, he quietly watched the armored frame step in his direction.

    As he arrived in front of the young man, he stopped in his track and looked deeply in his eyes. He was even more sure of his past assessment.

    The distance between the two men was approximatively two steps, Walter was completely basking in Fell''s aura. He could feel that the man before him wasn''t cut from the same rock than the rest of the Slums.

    His deep amber eyes left him completely shaken. Those aren''t the eyes of a Slums native, he thought before checking Johnny''s condition.

    "Don''t worry, he''s the one to blame, I gave him an order and he disrespected it." He said after examining his subordinate.

    Fell was surprised as he didn''t expect the police officer to brush the matter so quickly. He threw the several comeback quotes he prepared in the back of his head, and innocently asked in a soft voice.

    "What is this armor? Its weight is incredible, how do you guys even move inside them?" He exclaimed, his eyes were wide open as if he didn''t trample a MechSuit pilot.

    "What do you mean incredible weight?" the chief thought in his mind, "Even if we don''t take Johnny''s weight into account, you literally lifted a ton and half." This was what the assault team leader Walter wanted to respond.

    "Those are MechSuit, they are made with the same technology as the Gundroid and Bladroid. We use the Assist AI to control it as if it was our own body. As you might have noticed, no normal human could walk while wearing more than one ton of armor on their shoulders." He explained.

    "Gundroid¡­?" Fell asked, surprised by the term.

    "Yeah, you met one in the Underground facility. Right?" he asked while looking deeply in Fell''s eyes.

    "Ah! Yeah, I wrecked one." He instantly responded, seeing the chief''s lack of reaction. His face lit up and a slight red hue appeared on it.

    "I''m really sorry by the way; it kinda treated me as an intruder." He tried explaining himself; his bashfulness kicked in as he was ashamed by his actions.

    "That was because you were an Intruder¡­" Ronnie explained after landing close to them, his purple MechSuit shined under the soft light from the sun.

    A self-deprecating smile appeared on his face as he heard Ronnie''s logical explanation, his eyes lit up as he saw Ronnie''s MechSuit. Compared to the other two models, this purple suit was thinner and offered much more mobility and joints movement.

    "Stop looking at him like that big brother; he''ll think you''ll also swat him on the floor." Dorothy was wearing a green MechSuit that was half the height the other.

    Behind her was Rose, armored in a cyan colored MechSuit. Her steps thundered loudly on the floor, and Fell could feel the earth vibrate as she approached their position.

    What surprised him was that he expected her MechSuit to be as thin as Ronnie''s. But contrary to his expectation, her MechSuit had the biggest frame of them all. Its height exceeded Johnny''s MechSuit by more than a head, and her weight was probably much more ridiculous.

    Fell was standing in the middle of the Armored Assault Team; his eyes darted everywhere as he couldn''t stop himself from looking at the shining MechSuit.

    His heart started beating in his chest as he began imagining himself inside one, he would probably be as dashing as them.

    "You can test one in the Police Station if you want." Blurted Walter. The Assault Team leader noticed Fell''s attraction for MechSuit, "it wouldn''t hurt to let him test it" he thought after his proposal.

    Little did he know that Fell wasn''t particularly attracted to MechSuit. In fact, the young native of the slums was fond of anything that shined, his love for swords was born when he saw Soldier''s Fortune''s edge gleam for the first time.

 Chapter 37 Police Assault Team

    The assault team and Fell waited for the fiery-tempered Johnny to wake up. As Fell didn''t go easy on the policeman, he had enough time to get to know each member of the assault team.

    The squad was composed of five members with Walter being their leader. Ronnie, Johnny, Rose and Dorothy were under his direct order. As he heard their stories, Fell began respecting the eccentric group.

    Ronnie was one of Walter''s oldest subordinate, and he was a fallen noble that lost his position in his family due to his inability to cultivate. Walter found him in the street, drunk and lost, ready to take his own life. He helped him leave his deep depression and managed to give the young man a new path in life.

    Johnny was found in the Slums by Walter during one of his raids there. Similarly, he and Fell were both orphans from the slums, Walter found him malnourished and on death''s door inside of an underworld drug production factory. He took him out of hell and offered him a proper education, nurturing into the respectable man that he became.

    As for Rose and Dorothy, they were part of the central districts standard class. They were recruited from the police force by Walter, and his eyesight didn''t let him down as they both turned into superb units.

    The Assault Team knew Walters intent when he began explaining the origin of each member to Fell. He might not have the influence to force him into subordination, but turning him into a trustful ally was more than probable.

    The hotheaded man didn''t make them wait too much. His eyes cracked open, letting out a pained grunt, his brain was still very shaken due to his great shock it had received.

    He tried standing, but his hand failed him. He felt a firm grip grab the shoulder part of his metallic armour.

    He thanked his helper and turned his head to see one of his teammates. What he saw was a black-haired juvenile face man, who looked at him with calm eyes.

    He started straight in the black-haired man''s eyes; their deep amber color left him with a strange sense of d¨¦j¨¤-vu.

    His mind cleared up a bit, leaving its muddled state, his memory flooded back reminding him of the recent events.

    "You¡­you¡­" he blurted while pointing Fell with his index finger.

    A smile appeared on Fell''s face as he saw the armored man''s state. He couldn''t help himself but find the big man''s act amusing; his sorry state was a clear contrast with his dashing MechSuit.

    "Calm down Johnny. He''s a cultivator, and your loss was honorable!" Walter''s calm voice woke Johnny from his troubled state.

    The troubled Johnny swiftly turned his head around, and found his companion surrounding him.

    "A cultivator¡­" He thought.

    "So you didn''t use an underhanded method to beat the Gundroid underground?" He asked with expectation in his eyes.

    "Yup, I completely trampled on it" Fell exclaimed while puffing his chest a little bit.

    "Don''t be proud of it. You damaged military resources" Ronnie''s monotonous voice taunted Fell.

    As he heard the fallen noble tease him, a blush appeared on his face. He awkwardly laughed while rubbing his hand on the back of his head.

    "Incredible¡­", Johnny''s lips opened as a sigh escaped from them, "Sorry for assaulting you, I thought you were one of those mischievous bastards from the Slums!" hate flashed in his eyes as he gnashed his teeth when mentioning their birthplace.

    Fell caught a sign of the intense rage that existed in his heart, his childhood in the Slums followed with his encounter with the police officer Walter birthed fiery righteousness in his Johnny''s soul.

    "Now that you woke up, we should depart for the Main District." Walter suppressed voice resounded from under his MechSuit Helmet

    Fell and the Assault Team''s member complied and left the Factory. As they walked in the direction of the Factory''s main entrance, Fell was talking and bonding with the group.

    The police members of New Casablanca soon learned Fell''s easygoing nature and began bonding with him. Especially with Johnny, after fighting him and learning that he was a cultivator, accompanied with the fact that he was a native from the Slums. Their passionate talk soon turned into the center of the attention.

    Johnny''s eyes shined as Fell recounted his story to the group, skipping the detail about his encounter with the Blue Emperor Anzar. The hotheaded police offer couldn''t control his excitation when Fell began talking about his fights in Gladiator''s Arena, goose-bumps appeared on his skin as Fell narrated his debut. Blood, broken bones and brotherhood birthed in Johnny intense envy to go there.

    He could already see himself climb in the Arena''s rank, standing in the middle of the sandy arena while being cheered by the crowd.

    The group soon arrived in the main entrance, they crossed the security fence and stopped in their track. In front of them was a large black truck, on its side were four letters written in a deep red, NCSP.

    The group boarded the vehicle and swiftly took out their MechSuit showing Fell their face for the first time.

    As he imagined him, Ronnie was a handsome blond man in his thirties. His facial expression and posture clearly showed that he was part of the upper class, although time left deep marks that could be visible in his eyes.

    Rose had fair facial feature, and her skin showed that she was from a prosperous family. Although he wasn''t confident in his sense of beauty due to being born in the Slums; Fell was sure about himself; Rose was a beauty in her prime.

    Dorothy was a teenage girl, the baby fat that was in her face showed that she was still reasonably young. She sent a radiant smile in Fell''s direction; a childish giggle accompanied her glistening smile; Her laughter made Fell recall the Slum''s children that were playing next to the toxic puddle.

    As for Walter and Johnny. The fiery tempered Johnny was a youth in his twenties, his honest face followed with his young features were a clear contrast with the Golden MechSuit that he controlled.

    Walter was an experienced police officer. Having been through dangerous battlefields during his long career in the New Casablanca''s Assault Squad, his head filled with grey hairs and his serious face featured a long beard. A long scar traveled all along his left eye, and several other marks of his history were engraved on his face.

    The black assault truck left the Factory''s entrance and stepped in West Highway. Fell was sitting close to a window, his heart pulsed in excitation as he watched the endless sea of Factory unravel in front of his eyes.

 Chapter 38 Starry Sky

    Fell soon got bored from the repeated scenery and decided to close his eyes. He soon entered a slight meditative state, seemingly unaware of what was happening around him.

    The Assault Team Squad thought that the young cultivator had a rough journey and decided to stay quiet for the rest of the trip. The black truck silently traveled in the empty West Highway, its engine roared as it dashed through the void of traffic road.

    By Nightfall, Fell opened his eyes as he heard the other passenger talk. According to Chief Walter, they were going to arrive in a few minutes.

    He looked outside of the vehicle, his head popping out of the window. As he saw the view in front of him, his eyes opened wide, and his pupils contracted. Far down the road, he saw it.

    The Central Districts still weren''t visible to him; his sight couldn''t make him clearly see the city''s construct as they were still a bit far. But he could see a sea of incandescent light unravel in front of his eyes.

    "Beautiful." He murmured between his lips; his mind was smitten by the scenery in front of him.

    Further down the road, ten thousand light dangled in the sky. From the distance, they looked like a group of kindled fireflies that danced in the sky.

    As they approached the central district, he noticed that the lights were coming from the multitudes of constructs that composed the megalopolis. Some of them went so high that they seem to pierce through the firmament, breaking through the void in their ascension.

    "Looks like our young cultivator is excited," Ronnie exclaimed when he saw Fell''s head barge out of the truck.

    The intense gust didn''t bother Fell as he kept watching the city, his eyes glistened as they reflected the scenery in front of him. His black hair danced in the wind, and a beaming grin was drawn on his lips, under his excited state his laugher thundered in the empty road as they dashed in West Highway.

    "That''s normal; I was in the same state when I saw it for the first time," Johnny added whit deep nostalgia in his eyes, remembrance of his past streaked in his mind.

    "We were born there, so we don''t really know you guys felt. Although our city was quite well known for its beauty, so your reaction is quite understandable." Ronnie explained before closing his lips, his eyes flashed as he pondered on unknown matters.

    Fell''s excitation intensified as he saw the firefly-like light turn into incandescent suns under their approach. He turned his head around and swiftly understood that the Assault Team vehicle was advancing at a breakneck, its speed largely exceeding anything that he tried.

    Obviously, as a cultivator, he was capable of high movement speed. But, its downside was that his top running speed couldn''t be maintained for a long duration. Even if he went for the highest ratio of speed and endurance, he would only attain about ten per cent of the vehicle speed.

    He considered that he should also find himself a vehicle. Although he enjoyed walking, he wouldn''t mind owning his own high gear transport.

    The black assault truck silently crossed the remaining distance, rapidly approaching what looked like a roadblock. Thankfully, they were currently in a vehicle of the public function and dashed through it.

    But, that was what he thought. As they traversed the security roadblock, Fell didn''t sense any human activity in his surroundings.

    "My senses might be flawed due to my current high speed" He pondered a little bit, before brushing the matte to the back of his head.

    As they swiftly dashed in the Highway, Fell began noticing blurred borders in the sky. Squinting his eyes, the indistinct lines turned into a towering construct that grew up in size as they approached the kindled city.

    A sense of wonder was ingrained in Fell''s heart. His emotion and intellect were sent in ramble as a humongous city was appearing under his sight, vertigo took his mind as he asked himself how such construct could be built by mortals.

    Lost in his wonderment, he didn''t get back to his senses until he noticed that the black truck was decelerating; The vehicle further decelerated for a few hundred meters until it stopped in front of a large wall that blocked Fell''s view.

    Losing sight of the gorgeous scenery that kept his mind enlivened. His eyes darted everywhere as he checked his surroundings, the lack of light from nightfall wasn''t enough to block his eyesight.

    "Welcome to the Central District! We only need to pass from the last check." Walter explained while resuming their advance.

    On their left was a large passageway that cut through the wall that separated the Central Districts from the rest of the city.

    As they approached the passageway, he noticed a few armed soldiers that were making rounds in the sector.

    They calmly entered the passageway, the soldiers nodding in their direction. They didn''t stop Walter''s squad for a check due to seeing them leave earlier in the day.

    As they traversed the long tunnel, Fell could feel a multitude of scans cross his body. Leaving him with the same cold sensation in his neck. Hopefully, his unease ceased as soon as they left the main district entrance.

    "Welcome to New Casablanca''s Main District!" The Assault Team exclaimed together, sending shivers through Fell''s body.

    As he looked behind them, he could see a large wall that encompasses all of the main district. Above the wall was a large dome that traveled all similarly around New Casablanca''s Main district. Except that the dome wasn''t around the Main District, it circled around the Factory Sector and the Slums, isolating it from the central district.

    As he saw the construct, he swiftly lifted his head high in the sky.

    His eyes flashed, and his lips opened up. There in the middle of the gigantic canvas of the firmament, he saw something that he never had the chance to see ¡ª the starry sky.

 Chapter 39 West Police Station

    The central district was split in four parts; each part was connected to the slums with a highway. As Fell traveled to the main districts using West Highway, he was currently in the West part of the New Casablanca.

    His head was still popped from the black truck''s window; his sight focused on what was happening above him.

    Fell couldn''t exactly describe what he felt when he saw the starry sky. His heart constricted in his chest, and his breathing roughened up as he felt his blood rush in his brain.

    Dots connected in his mind, he was sure about it. The sky that he saw in the core was a fake one.

    "Why would they need to block the view," He thought as he began calming down.

    Turning his head around, he looked at the members of the Assault Team. Ronnie noticed Fell''s darting eyes; an amused smirk appeared on his face.

    "Impressed?" He asked with a smug face, in his mind Fell was still a young man. A young man that just quit the isolated slums to come to the big city.

    "Ughh, Yeah!" Fell exclaimed after calming down.

    He understood that no one from the Assault Team noticed the fact that the dome blocked the view in the Core; As he understood that they couldn''t offer him the answer he needed, he brushed the matter in the back of his head.

    Looking around, he the central district''s architecture immediately caught Fell''s attention and interest. Refined and sleek constructs paved the road they rode, their shapes and the way they assembled together defied gravity.

    Everything was clean and spotless, not a single dust or mark from time could be seen on the city''s buildings. As they traversed the city, he could see a lot of various vehicles. Some were oval and flew through the air, producing a buzzing noise as they advanced in their flight. They came in a variety of shape, and Fell even saw an arrow-shaped one that flashed in the air above them, crossing the road in a single blink.

    He didn''t feel the rest of the travel as he was too excited about the scenery outside. Everything his sight crossed was a novel discovery for the young cultivator; he was awed and impressed in front of the shining city.

    Under his dazed state, he didn''t feel the rest of the journey until the Assault Team''s truck stopped.

    In front of the small truck was a gigantic building. Its foundation were built in a large circle, and as each floor was added the construct acquired a sword-like shape, piercing straight through the clouds.

    Fell couldn''t clearly assess the number of floors, but he was sure that it was at least a few hundreds. As he was ready to get out, Johnny stopped him while shaking his head, showing him that it wasn''t time to leave the vehicle.

    "We''re not taking the main entrance" Walter explained, his hand spun the wheel to the left.

    The black truck silently circled around the building, passing close to several parked vehicles. Walter smoothly controlled the vehicle and entered a slope that was in the base of the building. As they finished their descent, Fell understood that it was a parking lot.

    Walter swiftly parked the black truck in their parking spot and ordered his team to leave the vehicle. His team executed his orders, Fell did the same and left the black truck.

    He jumped from the truck, and landed on the floor with a thud. Looking around him, he saw several similar black vehicles that were parked close to them.

    He noticed that the Assault Team began advancing, he followed with hastened steps. As he caught up with them, he heard Chief Walter murmur to Ronnie.

    "Go report the detail of our mission. Avoid disclosing too many details on Fell." He calmly ordered in his protege''s ear.

    Ronnie''s nodded before marching in the opposite direction of the team; his footsteps'' cadence quickly made him disappear from their view.

    Walter turned to Fell''s direction and looked deeply into his eyes before nodding. Fell understood that the middle-aged man wanted him to follow his steps.

    He executed himself, accompanying the middle-aged policeman with calm but confident steps.

    "Would you be interested in joining my team?" Chief Walter asked with a slight tremble in his voice.

    "I would have loved to, but I have projects of my own, and I can''t afford to stay in New Casablanca."

    Walter trembled as he heard Fell''s word, he knew that the young man was going to refuse his offer. He sighed as his lips pressed tight.

    Fell saw the middle-aged man''s reaction; a smile appeared on his face before he continued.

    "But, if you guys need my help, I will gladly assist you!" He firmly exclaimed. His voice turned serious, and his eyes showed his sincerity as he looked straight at Walter.

    "Good! Well said!" The middle aged man exclaimed. He patted his shoulders and laughed, getting a cultivator to promise something was very uncommon. He was lucky to have met Fell, who still didn''t know what his status meant.

    "Where are we going?" Fell asked in curiosity.

    "Didn''t you want to ride a MechSuit?" Walter responded with a slight smile on his lips.

    "Oh! Let''s go!" Fell''s response caused an amused expression to appear on Walter''s face.

    The Assault Team separated. Fell and Walter left for the MechSuit division that was on the ninety-eighth floor, while the rest of the team left to attend their own matters.

    Fell followed the middle-aged man; they traversed the West Police Station. While ascending through several floors in succession, Fell''s eyes darted everywhere as he saw several men dressed in three-piece suits run across the building''s corridor.

    They swiftly arrived in the ninety-eighth floor. As they stepped out of the elevator, Fell saw a silver sign against the wall. On it were four letters marked with a grey color -PMTD-.

    "Police MechSuit Testing Department", explained Walter in a succinct voice, "Follow me, I''ll show you around."

    As he advanced, he began introducing the several segments of the floor to Fell. Until they arrived in a large room, the floor and walls of the room were made of a solid tempered alloy; As Fell stepped on it, he could feel that he could apply his full strength on the ground without fearing any repercussion.

    In the middle of the room, groups of technician and engineer were working on MechSuits. Their ranting and rambling could be heard from outside the room.

    Walter called one of them, talked to him before returning to Fell.

    "I talked to a friend of mine; he''ll take care of you. I''ll go take off my MechSuit, and I''ll come back to check on you later." He explained before leaving Fell inside the room.

 Chapter 40 Guessing Game

    Walter''s left the MechSuit Test room; his steps emitted deep muffled sounds as he stepped on the solid floor. As he left the room, a bald man approached Fell.

    He approached Fell with confident steps, a smirk was on his face, and Fell could notice contempt in the depth of his eyes.

    "You''re the Slums native that Walter found?" he said while stressing the syllable when he pronounced the word Slum.

    Fell''s eyebrows slightly lifted as he understood that the man wasn''t fond of the Slums inhabitant.

    "I should get used to it." He thought before putting a beaming fake smile on his face.

    "Yes!" He answered with a friendly face and paused before continuing; "I am Fell! what''s your name brother?"

    "Mark." He answered, "Follow me; I''ll show you the different model we have."

    Fell followed the man, unfazed by the bald man''s attitude. They traversed the room, arriving in the wall opposite to the entrance.

    Numerous MechSuit of different colors were placed against the steel wall. Their metallic frame refracted the white light coming from the ceiling.

    "We have most of the basic models here; all MechSuit can be grouped in five categories!" He said before pointing to a two-meter tall Mechsuit on his left.

    "Let''s play a game; I''ll tell you the different MechSuit categories. And you''ll place the MechSuit here in each type." He finished with a slight smug on his face.

    As Fell heard the proposal, his eyebrows furrowed for a single breath. Before relaxing, he looked at the bald man with a bashful smile before nodding.

    "No way this brat will nail them!" he laughed internally, his smile extended all over his face before continuing with a "big brother" attitude.

    "The five type are quite simple: Assault, Control, Agility, Auxiliary and Defense make up the five different type of MechSuit" he paused after his explanation, his smugness intensified as his eyes flashed with contempt.

    Fell obviously noticed the man''s provocation. He decided to play along, he focused himself and started looking at the five MechSuit in front of him.

    Although he trusted the man''s word and was sure that he wouldn''t lie about the information he shared, he was convinced that this little game was only a way to nourish the bald man''s ego. In the end, he just needed to pinpoint the difference in their design to know their types.

    First, he noticed that their build wasn''t that different, probably because those MechSuit''s real purpose was for test piloting. Thus, their components were just the most essential.

    His eyesight locked on the MechSuit that the bald man pointed. As Fell focused on the two-meter tall armor, he started noticing a strange similarity with Johnny''s MechSuit. The way its frame was build and the aggressive feel it gave him made him sure about himself.

    "This one is an assault type!" He casually affirmed while designating the MechSuit.

    Mark''s smug face cringed, his lips slightly trembled as he heard Fell''s answer. "Beginner''s luck," He thought in his mind, "He probably only repeated my word, how can he even know what MechSuit are." He reassured himself in his mind.

    "You''re good at this! You are right, little brother!" He said with a forced smile

    Luckily, he had met the Assault Team earlier. Or else, this little game would have ended with his own loss.

    Fell looked at the other body fitting armor.He swiftly identified each one, the Assault Team''s MechSuit overlapped on top of the test suit in front of him.

    He pointed his finger in succession, designating each type in a single sweep.

    "This one is the Control type." The bald man trembled as he was even more flabbergasted by the second correct answer.

    "Agility Type!" Each answer made Mark shiver, even more; his shoulders trembled as he hoped that the young man would at least fail one of his guesses.

    "Auxiliary!" Each one of his answers hit Mark with the momentum of a bulldozer, destructing the bald man''s confidence.

    "And the last one is Defense!" Fell exclaimed in a loud voice, stressing each syllable as if he knew the damage he dealt with Mark''s mental health.

    Mark was left dumb in front Fell''s successive correct answer. He couldn''t understand how the young slum''s native accomplished it. In the end, he was only a slum native, how could he have so much knowledge about MechSuit.

    "Could it be Walter?" He pondered, "Yeah it should be him, he must have shared his knowledge with him!"

    Seeing the bald man''s reaction, Fell got the confirmation that his answers were all right. He looked at the man with a bashful smile and exclaimed himself in a childish innocent voice.

    "What did I win?" His act was perfect. His eyes were wide open, and a beaming smile that showed his incisive was plastered on his youthful face.

    "Ugh, nothing hahaha" He quickly brushed the matter while turning around, Fell could see large traces of sweat all over his back.

    Disappointment appeared on Fell''s face, but he swiftly brushed the matter in the back of his head. In the end, he didn''t come here to win anything. Face slapping Mark was only a bonus in his trip; his true goal was to drive those shining MechSuit.

    "So¡­ When can I test one?" He briskly asked.

    "Well, choose the type you want to equip¡­" Mark explained while dropping his shoulder to his sides.

    "I''ll go with the Assault Type."

    "Guys, help him equip Model 0012!" He ordered before sighing, his confidence took a hit after Fell''s guessing game.

    Fell approached the Assault Type MechSuit with hastened steps, his eyes shined with a deep light as he could feel his obsession kick in. An obscene gleam appeared in his eyes, and his hand traced all over the MechSuit''s smooth surface.

    As his hand traveled all over the armor''s body, a deep rattling sound came from the inside of the suit; the acute noise echoed in the large testing space. A deep line appeared in the middle of the armor, splitting it in half.

    The MechSuit opened in front of his eyes; thick smoke escaped from the armor as it was slowly revealing its interior to Fell.

 Chapter 41 Baby Steps

    Fell eyes lit up as his excitation spiked. As he couldn''t control his agitation, he threw himself inside the MechSuit, plunging deep in its insides.

    The armor closed itself around him, fitting every part tightly around his body.

    "But boss, we didn''t connect his AI with the MechSuit''s system!" one of the technicians swiftly noted.

    When he heard his subordinate''s observation, a broad smile appeared on Mark''s face. He didn''t have to wait too long to get his revenge.

    "That hillbilly was too excited to even wait for our instructions! Serves him right; he''ll scream for help when he''ll notice that he can''t take a single step forward!" He laughed in his head, waiting for the young man''s scream to reach his ears.

    "Wait! He was with Walter, maybe he''s someone that the West Police Department nurtured!" exclaimed another technician. The rest of the test piloting team agreed as they heard him.

    "You guys are right. Let''s see how he fares, be ready to eject him if any problem happens!" Mark responded to his subordinate.

    After a few seconds of silence, a shrill noise coming from the MechSuit joints echoed in the room. The MechSuit that Fell was driving moved his wrist, producing a mechanic noise.

    A muffled laugh escaped from the MechSuit''s helmet. Fell''s juvenile voice spread in the room, showing everyone that he could move the armored body fitting suit.

    The spotless white armor took a step forward, producing a deep muffled sound. It lost its balance shortly after the simple motion, almost falling due to that simple step.

    It stayed still after its first step. Then, it took another one and again was very close to falling on the ground. It stopped in its track, puzzled like a newborn baby who was learning how to walk for the first time.

    Mark was first surprised to see that Fell was in possession of an Assist AI chip, but as he saw the white MechSuit act like a child. He couldn''t help but produce a shrill chuckle filled with ridicule.

    "Why is this happening?" a brown-faced technician asked with deep voice.

    It was his first time seeing someone struggle so much in their first MechSuit piloting. The assist AI was supposed to link the suit with its driver, making the pilot control of the suit as simple as moving his own body.

    As he watched the white MechSuit struggle in executing the simple act of walking, he felt that something was wrong. Billy had been working in the West Police Department for a few years as a MechSuit engineer, and his brilliant mind didn''t take much time to doubt that something was wrong.

    He dashed in the direction of the control panel. As he was traversing the room in a rush; Fell''s haphazard steps were gradually getting smoother. Similar to a newborn baby, his baby steps were producing slow but steady results.

    The instant Billy arrived in front of the computer that recorded the data of the suits; a group made its entrance in the room.

    At their forefront was a man in his twenties, he had an angular face, and his black hair were slicked on the back. His steps were suffused with confidence, and anyone with martial art knowledge could notice that he had absolute control of his balance. Behind him, a group of middle-aged men were following his steps. Their faces were filled with large beaming smiles, and they were introducing the place with a soft submissive tone.

    The moment the guest entered the test room, they instantly stopped in their track. They noticed the strange scene that was happening in front of them, and a shiver traversed the group of middle-aged men as they noticed the struggling white MechSuit.

    Mark noticed the newcomers and recognized them. The middle-aged men dressed in three-piece suits were New Casablanca''s West Police Department bosses, the chairman and his counselor were currently accompanying the slick-haired man in a tour. He immediately dashed to their side to greet them. Mark wanted to explain to them that the pilot wasn''t part of the police force and it was Walter''s new protege.

    "Mark, explain yourself! Since when did our department was so lacking! Who is the pilot of that MechSuit!" The police force Chairman howled with deep anger, emptying his heart on Mark.

    He was already sickened due to having to lick that man''s boots during the tour; he couldn''t afford to fail today''s work. He wouldn''t just lose his job if he was unable to please him, even losing his life would be an easy ending compared to what he risked.

    Mark trembled due to his boss'' tantrum, he swiftly explained himself with a quivering voice.

    "I don''t know him, chairman! He''s Walter''s new protege!" He explained, throwing the problem to his friend Walter without an ounce of regret in his tone.

    "Walter again!" The police chairman blurted between his gritted teeth.

    His old colleague appeared in his mind; sorrow traversed his thought as he couldn''t help but pity his old mate''s fate, "Why did he need to always go against the noble¡­" this simple thought appeared in the chairman''s mind before being crushed in pieces. He couldn''t afford to be kind-hearted, he might lose his own head today!

    The PD Chairman turned in the direction of the slick-haired man and said with a fawning tone.

    "Sorry for the poor spectacle Sir, I hope it didn''t extinguish your envy of MechSuit!"

    The slicked hair man didn''t respond to the Chairman. His eyes were fixed on the faltering white MechSuit that was exercising in front of him. An excited murmur escaped from his lips, he turned to the chairman and looked deeply in his eyes.

    "I want to spar with him." His voice was calm, but his tone showed his great confidence. It wasn''t a proposition; his words were orders.

    The DP Chairman trembled as he heard his word. Pity flashed in his eyes, but it swiftly disappeared. He turned in the direction of Mark and barked.

    "Go, Tell him to prepare himself for a sparring!"

    Mark rushed in the direction of Fell as soon he heard his boss'' order. Similar to a well-trained dog, he rushed to Fell said and explained the situation to the Slum native with a passionate voice.

    "Hey, buddy! Look, our chairman liked the way you drive MechSuit and want to see you in action! Cheer up; it''s your opportunity for success, give it your all!" His snakelike voice hissed as he blabbered endless lies to Fell.

    The wobbling white armor stopped in its track, failing to fall in its deceleration. Hidden behind the helmet, Fell''s amber eyes shone as he heard Mark''s proposal.

    In the other side of the room, Billy was shaking in front of the control panel; his eyes were darting and consecutively looking at the white MechSuit and on the computer in front of him. His eyes were wide open, and his hand regularly ran on his curly hair, showing the intense state of mind that he was currently in.

 Chapter 42 Clashing with a noble Part One

    A few moments later, in the middle of the test room, two MechSuits were facing each other. Both of them were basic assault type model; their metallic frames refracted the blinding light that came from the ceiling.

    For an apparent reason, the slicked hair man was given a golden colored MechSuit. It was a brilliant golden color; it shone in great contrast to Johnny''s MechSuit. This one gave Fell the impression that he was in front of an imperial agent, While Johnny''s armored suit accentuated his fiery righteous and heroic temperament.

    Their colors might be the same, but Fell''s intuition was screaming in his mind. The individual in front of him was no righteous person. He could only feel deadly intent in the cold armor that was standing opposite to him.

    Surrounding them were the group of technicians and the chairman''s assembly. No sound could be heard in the room as most of the individual present could feel an insalubrious atmosphere in the steely space.

    The chairman and his assembly were standing with a look of pity in their eyes. They could feel their heartbeats in their throats, and they had difficulties breathing as they anticipated the carnage in front of them.

    The PD chairman sighed while slightly shaking his head. He looked one last time at Fell, before announcing the beginning of the match with a deep voice.

    "Begin!" His powerful voice traveled through the large space, shaking the eardrums of every individual present in the room.

    Contrary to what they expected, both opened stayed still.

    Time ticked, as their feet stood rooted on the steel floor. Seeing that his opponent wasn''t moving, the golden MechSuit''s hand moved. He lifted his hand in front of him and slightly beckoned to Fell to open the dance.

    A smile appeared on Fell''s lips. Shivers of excitement traversed his body; his fist clenched as he propelled himself, dashing to his opponent.

    He crossed the distance between them in a few steps, producing booming sounds as his legs stepped on the floor with the might of a bulldozer. His fists already clenched, he made the simplest motion with his hand going forward.

    The trajectory was simple, and the motion was unstable. Everyone present could easily dodge the blow. Fell''s fist had no remarkable speed nor traveled in an unpredictable or complex path.

    The slicked hair man easily saw through the childlike fist and sent his arm to counter it, acting as if he was simply swatting an annoying fly.

    His move sent Fell tumbling in the side. Dressed in his MechSuit, he rolled for a few meters before crashing on the wall, shaking the whole room with his momentum.

    Jeering exploded through the room. Mark and a few of his friends were scornfully laughing in front of the scene.

    "What a child! That was to be expected from someone from the slums! Roll to your homeboy!"

    Fell could hear their taunting, but he calmly flipped himself. Trembling while getting up, he looked at his opponent before dashing at him in a straight line.

    He arrived in front of the Golden MechSuit and prepared his blow. The scene repeated itself; a golden armored arm was sent to confront a white armored fist. But, as everyone thought that the White MechSuit would be sent tumbling to the side. Everyone excepted the result to stay the same as it was almost like they had gone back in time and were rewatching the same scene.

    Fell retracted his arm and threw himself to his opponent. His leg broke through the steel floor as he used his up-most strength to propel himself forward.

    Their impact produced a sound similar to two trains crashing into each other. Fell wrestled the slicked hair man to the ground, he then calmly clenched his fist and pounded the helmet of the golden MechSuit.

    His actions were similar to a maddened gorilla who was beating his prey to death. As if he was a blacksmith, he was hitting the metal with rhythmed pounds that echoed through the room.

    Stillness took over the room, as everyone present was holding their breath in front of the scene.

    After he finished beating the Golden MechSuit to a pulp, leaving it with a deformed helmet, Fell calmly got up and began walking away.

    The strangeness of the scene left the chairman dumb stuck; he couldn''t understand how the White MechSuit pilot won. His early impressions of the pilot were those of a first timer. His motions were disarticulated, and he even gave the impression that he was a newborn child, still struggling and learning how to walk for the first time.

    As he was leaving the scene with a cold calmness, as if he wasn''t the one who wrecked the Golden MechSuit, Fell went back to his place and began exercising his body. He was completely unaware of who he just beat, and deep down he simply didn''t care.

    The Golden MechSuit, immobile, laid on the cold steel floor for a minute. Its fingers moved, and a strange aura escaped from inside its metallic frame. The pilot awoke after his beating. Under his deformed and broken helmet, his usually calm face instantly deformed into a monstrous grin.

    "Get back here!" He howled while getting up.

    Fell was still focused on his training and completely ignored the man''s word. As he was getting used to the weight of the MechSuit, his motions were turning more and more fluid as he executed the Massin Martial Art.

    Under the MechSuit. The surface of his skin was filled with veins, they squirmed and moved as if Fell had worms under his skin. His muscles trembled and bulged in a strange rhythm, and his blood coursed through his veins as he was emboldened by the Massin Martial Art.

    He was soon pleasantly surprised to feel progress in this Fist Art. Ever since his breakthrough to small success, he had difficulty progressing in this field.

    Helped with the ridiculous weight that came from the MechSuit, he lost himself in his training ¡ª feeling that his next breakthrough was close. Exhilaration filled his mind as he was pushed forward with his passion.

    As he felt that only a simple line was blocking him from breaking through, a penetrating fist connected with the left side of his helmet, sending him crashing straight in the wall.

    His vision spun as he traveled in the air, his mind was still filled with his Fist Art. He crashed on the wall, and his frame was embedded deeply in the wall.

    "Get back up and come here! We''re not done yet. That was just a warmup!" The slicked hair man''s word escaped from under his helmet. The body fitting armor suppressed his voice, but the MechSuit couldn''t suppress his inherent imperial tone.

 Chapter 43 Clashing with a noble Part Two

    It took Fell a few seconds to get out of the steel wall. He slid down the wall and patted himself in habit. He stood up with difficulty, his loose sense of balance made him burp as he felt cold sweat all over his body.

    The surprise attack he received made his brain jiggle inside his skull. He slapped the side of his head a few times and repeatedly shook his head in an attempt to clear his confusion.

    Feeling his foggy brain clear a little bit, his vision stopped swaying, and the slight nausea he had before went away as quickly as it appeared.

    Under his helmet, Fell smiled while chuckling weirdly. His eyes shone as his lips opened in a large deformed grin.

    "That bastard!" He cursed in his mind but moved on due to having more urgent matters to deal with.

    He could feel his First Art epiphany gradually disappear. Afraid to miss this chance, he ignored the Golden MechSuit and resumed his Massin Martial Art practice.

    The slicked hair man expected Fell to pounce on him after his underhanded attack. Never in his dream, would he have thought that the juvenile-faced man that inside the white MechSuit would completely ignore him. Didn''t he just send him flying like a kite in the wall? Didn''t he feel any humiliation?

    His heart trembled as he sensed an intense foreboding. He was used to stepping on people as if they were ants, and the individual he crushed in his life showed a variety of emotion. Never once in his life did he see someone ignore him as if his hit was nothing more than the sting of a mosquito.

    His eyes wrinkled under his helmet, deforming due to his inner thinking. A seed of fear sprouted in his heart, and it left him disgusted by this feeling.

    As Fell was doing his best in trying to recover his state of Fist Art epiphany. The Golden MechSuit began shaking, its metallic frame produced several rattling noises as he could be seen clenching his fist.

    This scene didn''t go unnoticed by the experienced PD Chairman. His eyes were wide open, and his face featured a gaping mouth. His palms were sweaty, and his anxiety spiked as he could feel his worst fear come to existence. The stress weakened his knees as he watched the heavy arms of the MechSuit being thrown away, as if they were hitting an invisible enemy.

    "He''s gonna explode! This is the end! Walter, your boy, killed us all!" The chairman screamed in his mind. Ignoring a noble was similar to touching a dragon''s reverse scale. Its repercussions would be catastrophic, and everyone present could be eliminated due to this.

    Fell completely cut off his senses from his surroundings. His perception was spread in a small radius around him, everything else was ignored.

    He began calming down as he felt his grasp on the Fist Art gradually come back. The sudden epiphany was recovered, and this time he was ready to deal with anyone who would try to stop him in his progress.

    The Golden MechSuit was rooted on the ground, his limb shook as if they were leaves in the middle of a cyclone.

    Under the golden helmet, the nobleman''s face was deformed due to his state of mind. He couldn''t understand why his heart felt like it was going to implode in his chest, and no trace of his past calmness remained in his mind.

    Feeling that he was losing control of his own sanity, a spark of clarity appeared in his mind.

    "Must be those pills!" He thought during a single instant before it swiftly disappeared. His mind blanked, and his thought process stopped.

    Due to the intense flood of emotion that was overtaking him. Something was triggered deep in his psyche, he could feel something dark and virulent grow in his own brain.

    An intense pain took over the nobleman as a blood-curling scream escaped from the helmet. The suppression from the armor couldn''t block his howl from spreading through the room.

    Everyone present was shaken by the scream, they couldn''t understand his reaction, and they couldn''t control the intense fear that took over their bodies. The cry that escaped the nobleman''s lips made their hair rise, and cold sweat soaked their body.

    The disturbance didn''t go unnoticed by Fell, but he decided to ignore the man''s reaction. He assumed he was only having a mental breakdown, and decided to keep his focus on his Fist Art. In the end, if he decided to try another underhanded attack, he was fully ready to counter-attack.

    Under his white MechSuit, his motions were gradually turning fluid, flowing endlessly as his muscle''s fibers tensed and relaxed in repetition. He was getting progressively accustomed to the body-fitting armor, and he could feel that the Massin Martial Art Middle Success breakthrough was going to happen soon.

    The pained scream intensified, and the nobleman could feel that something was sprouting in his brain. Fell felt a disturbance of Heaven and Earth Energy in his surroundings.

    He felt the Energy in the room get emptied at an alarming rate. Feeling that he secured his Fist Art epiphany and that his breakthrough was only a question of time, he spread his sense through the room.

    A surprised yelp escaped from under his lips, he immediately understood that the nobleman in front of him was having an Energy Path breakthrough. The intense disturbance in Heaven and Earth Energy was due to him turning into a small sized black-hole that was engulfing all the space energy that existed in the room.

    The phenomenon intensified as Fell could feel that all the energy that existed in the Police Department radius was rushing to their spot. The density of Energy in the room was gradually turning potent and Fell could see the room bask in the mercury like energy.

    "Oh! You''re having a breakthrough! Time to pay back!"

    "Little gold parasite, time to eat to your fill!" He sent his will in his Inner Universe and completely opened his pores.

    Part of the energy that was rushing to the Golden MechSuit diverted in the opposite direction of the room. Fell kept repeating the Massin Martial Art as torrents of Energy flooded his meridians. Helped by the strong boost of Energy, his Fist Art broke through in a single instant.

 Chapter 44 Clashing with a noble Part Three

    As soon as his Massin Martial Art progressed to the Middle Success, the mountain-like weight of the MechSuit disappeared. His fist flowed in the air with ease, unhindered by the few tons that he was wearing.

    An intense flood of emotion washed Fell''s mind. He felt as if he was stepping on clouds; he was sure about himself. He could attain his top speed dash even while wearing the MechSuit, and the body fitting armor''s weight would only make the blows deadlier.

    At the same time, his meridians were being filled with an absurd amount of Heaven And Earth energy. The river like energy flood down his energy pathway, rushing straight to his Inner Universe where the Golden Egg was.

    Thankfully, the golden egg was gifted with an incredible absorption ability, because this would have been enough for his body to explode and to turn the room into an incandescent hell.

    After being sneak attacked by the slicked-hair man during his epiphany, Fell was ready to risk his own life to return the slap. Ruining his breakthrough was just the first step of his revenge.

    Their fight turned into an energy absorption one. Both cultivators turned into black-hole like figures as they completed opened their pores, accepting strand after strand of energy.

    The DP chairman''s group and the technician couldn''t see anything. They could only feel the air in the room turn harder to breathe, their mind blanked as they felt their clothes and hair move slightly.

    "What is going on here?" softly exclaimed one of the technicians while shivering, his voice was full of doubt as he felt his shirt move slightly. A cold gust of wind traversed his body, making him tremble incessantly.

    Bone-chilling coldness appeared in the room, sounds of teeth clattering could be regularly heard.

    "Maybe we should close the windows!" Exclaimed an engineer in a stroke of genius.

    His friend slapped him as soon as he heard his colleague''s dumb remark. He then pointed his finger around the room and exclaimed in a sassy voice.

    "Do you see any window around!" He screamed while doubting his friend''s engineer degree.

    Their fight turned into a standstill; both cultivators absorbed the energy in their surroundings. If the DP chairman could see their fight, he would have seen torrents of energy dancing around the MechSuits.

    Fell did his up-most to wrestle the energy out of the nobleman''s control. The screams that escaped from the golden MechSuit were soothing his ears, and under his helmet, a bashful smile was on his face as he executed his Hyper Perceptive State.

    He completely unleashed his Soul Cultivation base and wrestled the control of the majority of the energy that was in the room. He revolved it in his energy meridians and sent it streaking straight to the Golden Egg.

    The parasite that lived in his Inner Universe couldn''t be happier in this situation. The more energy Fell nourished it, the more its absorption radius expended.

    The fight that was in a standstill turned into a one-sided battle under his Hyper Perceptive State as he completely deprived the Golden armored cultivator of any energy.

    The atmosphere calmed down as the nobleman''s breakthrough failed.

    His blood curling screams ended at the same time as his breakthrough attempt failed, his voice turned softer as his sore throat couldn''t produce any more sound.

    The golden MechSuit fell down on the ground, its sleek and shiny frame hitting the steel floor announced the end of their fight.

    The DP chairman was dumbstruck by the fight''s conclusion. Neither did he understand the nobleman reaction, nor did he get the second part of their battle.

    He quickly dashed to the fallen MechSuit position and howled in a deep voice to the technicians that were shocked still.

    "Quick! Come over here and help me take out his suit! We need to check his injuries and tend them if he has any!" He shouted while trying to turn the MechSuit on the side, but to no avail.

    A technician rushed to an empty MechSuit and hopped inside with ease. He skillfully dashed to the chairman side and assisted him in turning the golden MechSuit on its back.

    Fell watched the scene calmly watched the scene unfurl in front of him. He clearly understood what was happening, the nobleman was a cultivator, and his failed attempt during his breakthrough put a severe toll on his body.

    With the assistance of a MechSuit strength, they quickly turned the MechSuit on its back and opened it. A sharp noise followed with a screen of vapor as the armor''s inside was depressurized. It gradually opened, revealing the nobleman''s body to the two men.

    The DP chairman face turned white, and his lips cracked open slightly with a shiver. The MechSuit that was driven by the technician began shacking regularly, the fitting body armor produced several rattling noises as its limbs rubbed against each other.

    Both men''s reaction didn''t go unnoticed by the other people in the room. Both the MechSuit department and Chairman team rushed to their position. Their reactions ranged from intense shaking to disgust, and some of the weak hearted even left the scene with their hand blocking their lips.

    "What a bunch of p*ssies¡­" Fell calmly assessed while imagining the slicked hair man''s body state, he calmly marched in their direction. His curiosity spiked due to their reaction, and his curiosity was a facet of his personality that he couldn''t control very well.

    He crossed the room; his steps accelerated as a strange morbid curiosity took over his mind.

    He rapidly arrived in front of the Golden MechSuit. His mechanical striding stopped right where the noble cultivator''s body appeared in his vision.

    His face was hidden by the assault test MechSuit''s oval helmet, but under the android-like mask his reaction couldn''t be more honest.

    His face whitened as he saw the cultivator angular face. His face was deformed with pain, and several deep gashes traveled all along his handsome face. In the middle of those injuries, spore-like tentacles could be seen squirming. Their weak motion birthed an intense shiver that traveled all over Fell''s body.

    "What the hell is this!?" He screamed with a shaky voice.

 Chapter 45 Slight Problem

    Inside of an apartment that was situated on the top floor of one the main district''s buildings, a young man was facing the mirror of the bathroom. His youthful face was spotless without a blemish, and his amber colored eyes gave an ancient feel as if they saw through time itself.

    His clear amber colored eyes were suffused with a strange calmness that created a massive contrast with his juvenile face.

    He was standing naked in front of a mirror, and his body was still wet from the shower he just took. A water droplet slid down from a strand of his hair and fell down on his lean shoulders. Then it slid further down his body drifting along the lines of his muscles.

    His physique was as impressive as his face. A strange balance between slightly bulky muscles and highly flexible tendons; His muscles frame was balanced, and every single one of his muscles was clearly demarcated as if he was an ancient Greek God sculpture.

    The young man was Fell Pluck, and the apartment he was using was his current house in the main districts. A week has passed since the West PD incident, and he decided to use the last credit card he looted from DarkSun Gang to rent a decent sized apartment in one of New Casablanca''s best housing skyscraper.

    That day, after his fight with the nobleman concluded, and with the discovery of the nobleman''s body state. Everyone was horrified by the degree of his injury, but what left them all shivering were what they found inside his body.

    Several spore-like tentacles were squirming inside his flesh, but they died out a few minutes after their discovery. Disappearing as soon as they appeared, this incident left the individuals that saw the scene doubt their eyes.

    Walter arrived in the scene after they disappeared, and he couldn''t understand why everyone was panicking. With serious doubts in his mind, he helped Fell leave the Police Department and showed him around before dropping him close to a housing agency.

    After spending a week in the main district, he managed to understand the circumstance of New Casablanca.

    The city was currently under the control of four noble families. The Tagerio Family managed the Eastern side of the city; their influence was deeply ingrained in the area as they had the monopoly of Tech-Industry.

    The Henrys family controlled the North side of New Casablanca, and their position as a noble family came from their long history with the food industry. Their existence could be traced back to the dawn of the city, at a time where the Slums didn''t exist.

    The Merendinis family also secured their spot as a top family due to their ancient lineage. Their work was and will always be the external security of the city. They were the city front guard, and their noble status was the most legit for Fell. They controlled the Southern side of the city.

    The last noble family was the one that controlled the city''s internal security. Moreover, Fell already met one of their members. The slicked hair man was part of the Golden family, and according to the research that Fell did. They were the least popular in the main districts, and it was due to the iron-handed grasp they had on the police force.

    The Golden Family was a particular case even inside the Noble Families, and that was due to their control on the police force that they not only controlled the West side of New Casablanca, but their influence extended all over the rest of the city.

    Due to the existence of these four families, New Casablanca was jointly controlled by four entities, and it was due to this that the Slums came to life. No family wanted to lessen its influence by going to such a rotten place.

    Fell sighed as he looked at himself in front of the mirror. Ever since that day, he expected repercussions from the Golden family; But no one came knocking on his door, and this situation left him in a somewhat tense state.

    He was ready to welcome them with a fight, but if they didn''t come to him, he wouldn''t initiate anything. He wasn''t in the mood to confront them.

    He slightly rotated his Body cultivation base with a thought, sending his blood rushing through his veins. His body''s internal temperature spiked in a single breath, and all the water that was in the surface of his skin and hair began evaporating.

    "Cultivators really have it easy¡­" He calmly assessed while looking at his body that was drying at an absurd speed.

    "Talking about cultivation, ever since I broke through in the Massin Martial Art. I can feel that my weight completely disappeared."

    "It''s¡­ as if I''m walking on clouds!" He pondered while applying slight pressure on his toes. This simple action caused him to hop instantly; he dashed vertically through the room attaining the three-meter high ceiling with ridiculous ease.

    The tip of his nose brushed against the ceiling at the peak of his ascension, before he began falling down. He landed on the luxurious carpet that was on the floor without producing any noise.

    "Good! It looks like I can finally control my body again!" He exclaimed loudly with a beaming smile. A wry smile appeared on his face as he thought about the hell that he had to pass through the past week.

    After his Fist Art breakthrough, his body got accustomed to the MechSuit ridiculous weight. The downside of this accomplishment was that he completely lost control of his strength. As soon as he took a step out of the body fitting armor, he broke the test room steel floor.

    Since then, his only acquaintances in the main district avoided him like the plague. They were too afraid that he might squash them in bits, and in the end, they were right. He could only bid his time and do his best to regain control of his body as fast as he could.

    Thankfully, the trouble just ended, and he could finally go back to society without fearing to kill anyone with a slight mishap.

    He excitedly put on his trousers and vest, and he sent an order to his AI.

    "AI, call Walter and tell him that my problem is fixed!"

    He prepared himself, excited to finally be able to tour around the shining city.

 Chapter 46 Main Districts Reality

    It was in the middle of the West Side of the main districts. Inside of a few buildings that were well known for their high-class Caf¨¦s and Bars, Walter''s Assault Team were currently sitting around a table with impatient looks, waiting for the young cultivator.

    Walter received a call a few hours earlier, confirming him that Fell had finally sorted out his issues. He ordered his team to join him as they were going to see Fell again, making them group up in one of New Casablanca''s most esteemed caf¨¦. His goal was to deepen his relationship with Fell, as he could feel that something was brewing in the city and that it wouldn''t be long before it exploded.

    At the same time, Fell was currently walking on the spotless side road. His steps were unhurried, and his head would dart in several directions. He was looking everywhere, imprinting the view of the shining city in his mind.

    As he walked on the road, he quickly dodged the few pedestrians on his way without even looking at them. He slowly but surely approached the place of the appointment he set up with Walter.

    The few pedestrians that walked in New Casablanca''s couldn''t help but stop in their steps. Surprised by the young man''s action, but they quickly moved on the understanding that he was only a hillbilly.

    As he was looking at a particularly impressive building, he lost himself in the beauty of its architecture. The sleek skyscraper traversed the cloud, and its end prolongated even further. While he was in his own world, something happened. Something that would be deemed expectable by the few pedestrians that saw him. He collided with a large framed man in an intersection.

    "Ugh, excuse me¡­" he exclaimed while ignoring the tall man in front of him. He walked past him and advanced further down on the road, as he could see the building where he was going to meet the Assault Team.

    After a few steps, he stopped in his track. He swiftly turned back with eyes wide open. Only to see the tall man''s figure disappear in the corner of the street, long flaming hair proudly cascaded on his bulky shoulders.

    "I¡­ didn''t feel him!" Surprise took over his mind as he couldn''t help but want to slap his face. The only reason why he could dodge the pedestrians that were in the road was due to him feeling their blood''s potency.

    After a few days locked in his apartment, he discovered an interesting ability. He could vaguely feel the presence of living being in a radius of a few steps around his body and after a few tests, he swiftly deduced that what he was feeling was their blood potency, also called Blood Qi.

    Ever since he came out in the street, he has been testing and training his new ability; he was avoiding the pedestrians on the road with his Blood Qi detection skill. For the power-obsessed youth that Fell was, time was precious, and his life mojo was to use every single second available to better himself.

    The random act of colliding with the tall man turned into a whole different situation for Fell. Him not feeling any Blood Qi meant two things. Either the man in front of him was an individual with exceptional blood potency, or that his Blood Qi detection ability was flawed.

    "That guy is a cultivator and a pretty strong one¡­" He thought while resuming his steps. He forced himself not to go back, calming his thirst for battle.

    "I shouldn''t make them wait even more¡­ Let''s see if destiny makes us cross path once more."

    As he continued down the road, he could feel the blood potency of the people that were in his path. His detection ability wasn''t flawed, further confirming his thought about the red-haired man.

    After a few minutes of unhurried striding, he arrived in the appointment place. As he was ready to enter to take the building''s main entrance, he saw a scene that made him stop in his steps.

    A frail man was dragging a young girl, his crooked hand firmly clenched around the girl''s forearm. Fell noticed an intense distress in the juvenile girl''s eyes; her lips were shut tightly as she forced herself not to scream.

    Behind the man, a dense pack of bodyguards was following him.

    Around them, the pedestrians acted as if nothing was happening.

    "At least, in the slums, they didn''t do it in plain sight. Don''t these guys feel shame! Why the hell aren''t they being stopped or called out!" He thought, his eyes flashed as his emotions tumbled in his mind.

    Sadness, pity and anger successively crossed his mind. He forced himself to calm down and began approaching the frail man.

    A few pedestrians noticed his action and tried to grab his shoulder in an attempt to stop him, but to no avail. Fell was a cultivator, and his advance was paired with an intense determination.

    He ignored everything in his passage and arrived in front of the frail man. He stopped in front of him, blocking his road.

    As soon as the frail man noticed him, his lips crooked in contempt. As for the young girl, her eyebrows lifted and her innocent eyes opened wide. Her expression quickly changed as she frowned and shook her head slightly.

    Fell understood her facial expression; she didn''t want him to be implicated in this mess. However, his feet stood in their place, deeply rooted on the ground.

    "What do you want!" The frail man asked with a menacing tone, "Move back if you don''t want to implicate your family!"

    Anger appeared in his mind as the frail man saw that his threat didn''t produce the slightest result. The amber-eyed youth in front of him didn''t show any reaction; no ripple appeared ¡ª only calm coldness.

    He gritted his teeth as the young man''s look caused his heart to jump in his chest.

    "Take care of him!" He gnashed through his gritted teeth; pointing his crooked hand straight at Fell.

    Fell crossed his arms and expressed himself in a bright tone as if he was talking to a child.

    "I''ll advice you to leave the girl behind." His word was short but concise, and they didn''t leave any leeway to the frail man.

    "You don''t know who you''re talking to!" He howled in deep anger, his eyes darted everywhere but never crossed Fell''s amber colored eyes. "I told you! LEAVE NOW, OR I WILL KILL YOUR WHOLE FAMILY!" He howled again, his sharp scream similar to a pig being slaughtered.

    Fell sighed, his eyebrows relaxed as he responded with a bone-chilling calmness in his voice.

    "Family¡­?"

    "I have none of that." His amber colored eyes flashed with an intense golden light; his Soul cultivation base instinctively powered his last sentence.

 Chapter 47 Psychological Outburs

    Fell''s last sentence made the frail man take a step back. His teeth clattered in fear as he understood that the young man in front of him wasn''t backing down.

    "Madman¡­" He muttered between his teeth. He lifted his crooked hand high in the sky and let it down in a swift motion.

    The bodyguard that was on his left dashed forward. Moving past his master, he appeared in front of Fell in a few steps. His gigantic frame put in front of Fell formed a massive contrast. Standing one in front of the other; Both men looked like David and Goliath.

    The titanic man clenched his massive fist and did the only thing he ever did in his life. His fist, large and thick, descended several times in succession. His blows hit Fell''s body ten times in a single breath.

    His oversized body didn''t seem to lessen his speed as he pounded Fell straight in the chest.

    The multitude of punches produced a deep ringing noise as they made contact with the unmoving Fell.

    Fell didn''t move. He placidly watched his inhumanely tall opponent unleash several punches that each had the strength to smash a human skull, with a smile on his lips.

    The titanic bodyguard wasn''t surprised by the youth''s reaction as a thought traversed his mind.

    "Acting all mighty, ugh! salute god for me in the afterlife you punk!" He thought as he sent a last blow. It was a rapid uppercut that sharply connected with Fell''s temple.

    As he finished his high-speed combo; His torso rose up and fell down in succession due to the intense effort he carried out. And before he even had the time to see the effect of his hits, he inhaled sharply; Awakened by a stinging pain that quickly made him look at the source of the pain.

    His eyes slowly descended as they shakily gazed at his titanic sized hand that could be described as bear paws. Horror replaced the confidence in his eyes as a deep whale-ish scream escaped from his lips.

    His hands were crooked and mangled. His knuckles were displaced, and his rough skin that had the same resistance as leather was jagged in bits.

    He looked at his dangling crippled hand in confusion as he couldn''t understand how they ended up in this state.

    As he heard his bodyguard''s powerful pained howl, confusion also took over the frail man as he couldn''t understand how the titanic-sized man was hurt in their clash.

    He clearly saw that the young man in front of him didn''t move his limb once during their confrontation. He pointed his crooked hand in Fell''s direction while shaking heavily.

    "Wh¡­Who are¡­you??" He weakly managed to speak under his intense fearful state. His legs quacked as he controlled his urge to run away.

    Fell sighed as he looked at their pitiful state. He unhurriedly approached the tall man with calm steps. The sound of his metallic boot against the floor made their heart jump in their throat.

    As he arrived in front of the crippled bodyguard, he leaned forward and examined the man''s injury.

    "Still savable, you should run to the nearest hospital." He assessed as if the damage had nothing to do with him.

    The bodyguard was stunned by Fell''s action. Why was he advising him? Why wasn''t he finishing him? He could only obediently nod and leave the scene. His jogs were followed with pained grunts that escaped his gritted teeth.

    As he watched the eccentric scene unfurl in front of him. Doubt appeared in the crooked handed man as his frail frame shook intensely. His heart skipped a bit noticing that the juvenile faced man was looking at his direction.

    "G¡­Guard!" He howled

    "They all left."

    He snappily turned his head backward only to see no one behind him. His legs started shaking as he couldn''t muster the strength to turn back.

    "I¡­ I can give you money! I can give you power! Woman! Everything!" He exclaimed in a shaky voice, "I''ll obviously leave the girl behind!"

    "I want nothing. Today, I will use you. You are my message to this rotten city. To this rotten world." Fell''s voice echoed in the frail man''s ears causing him to shake even more.

    "N¡­o no no no no. It''s not my fault! Help me change; I can become your message!" Endless blabbering escaped from his crooked lips as he attempted to survive. Today even if he had to crawl away from this, he needed to survive!

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    Hearing that the juvenile man resumed his steps, his legs stopped supporting him due to his fear, and he weakly fell on the ground. Tears slid down on his contorted face, and he began sobbing.

    Seeing the man''s reaction Fell stopped in his track. A glimmer of doubt appeared in his eyes as he pondered on his action.

    As he heard Fell''s vengeful walk stop. The frail noble sobbed even more, his shaking intensified as his tears endlessly flowed down his face.

    Fell sighed while looking at the childish man. He strode to his side and patted him on the shoulder. "There. There. Let everything flow. It''s good to blow some steam." He kindly advised with a soft voice.

    The young girl by their side couldn''t understand what was happening around her. She was only sure about a single thing. The juvenile faced man in front of her saved her and the hellish event that was going to happen was stopped. Her nightmare ended.

    Fell waited till the frail noble emptied his heart. His pitiful cries ended soon, and all that was left was a wet face filled with snot and tears.

    "Are you still going to¡­"

    -Crack- His head snapped before he even finished his sentence.

    Fell calmly stood and patted his hand as if he was cleaning his hand after completing a random job. He then resumed his steps under the publics horrified eyes.

    Every single individual present in the scene was surprised by the man''s act. A single thought revolved in their mind at the same time.

    "Madman¡­ Like him might change things¡­"

 Chapter 48 A Revenge In White

    The news quickly spread. It didn''t take long before a crowd surrounded the entrance of the building. Fell was currently inside an elevator, and he was enjoying the view of the city.

    The sun was still pointed high in the sky, majestically illuminating the city with its soft light. A dim light that reflected on the multitude of skyscrapers that spread all over the view, refracting and condensing through the spotless steely wall and translucent glass.

    "The view is really worth it." He exclaimed while looking at his right hand; The same hand that ended the frail man''s life.

    Deep down, although he wasn''t sure of his action. He didn''t regret anything.

    As the elevator progressed in its ascension passing through a layer of clouds. A breathtaking view appeared in front of Fell. His eyes opened wide as his heart skipped a beat when he saw it.

    The top of all of New Casablanca''s buildings pierced through the layers of clouds, making them look like many sword tips that proudly drilled their way to heaven.

    As he lost himself to the scenery, Fell''s troubled mind calmed down under natures cleansing.

    His ascension stopped as he had already attained the top floor. Unfortunately, he noticed that there were several other buildings that kept piercing through the firmament.

    He shook his head with a look of pity and turned around to face the elevator''s door while pondering.

    "Contrary to this man-made construct, my ascension won''t stop now!" He affirmed in his mind carving the sentence deeply in his heart.

    The shining metallic door smoothly opened without a noise. The first thing that appeared in front of Fell was a soft flaming red carpet that was spread all over the floor. As the young cultivator''s view left the ground, a youth dressed in a clean waiter''s attire appeared in front of him.

    A broad smile was drawn on his face, and he amicably nodded in Fell''s direction before leaving in haste. In each of his hand dangled two large silver trays filled with a customer''s order.

    Fell sighed as he didn''t even leave him the time to ask him about the Assault''s Team whereabout, instantly darting as soon as he greeted him.

    "Well, it shouldn''t be hard to find them!" He nonchalantly thought before marching forward, entering deep in the high-class caf¨¦.

    "We''re at such high altitude, but I can''t feel any cold wind!" He randomly thought while moving past several tables.

    He looked upward and saw a small-scale dome surrounding the rooftop. Enclosing the caf¨¦ and sheltering it from the cold environment. He slowed his steps while watching the technology used to achieve it.

    "It''s only blocking the coldness, nothing else! I can even feel a soft refreshing breeze." He thought while taking a deep breath, feeling a soft and fresh air go through him.

    As he was enjoying the calming mood, a shoulder briskly made contact with him moving Fell out of the way.

    "Tsk¡­ Watch your steps¡­" A blond-haired man blurted before moving past him.

    "What steps? I wasn''t even moving¡­" Fell murmured in a soft tone.

    "Not happy? You can just leave" The blond man exclaimed as he walked further away. "Peasant¡­" he muttered while sighing. A smile quickly replaced his disgusted expression as he joined a table filled with stylish youth.

    Thankfully for him, the scenery in the elevator calmed Fell''s mind, and he wasn''t in the mood to slap random children. His eyes darted everywhere. After a few moments, he finally managed to notice the Assault Team.

    Johnny''s large frame couldn''t escape his view, especially when that fellow was the only one who came in the caf¨¦ dressed in his training uniform. The only other exception was Fell himself, dressed in his usual spotless black martial attire.

    Ronnie and Walter were dressed in clean suits. Except that Ronnie wasn''t wearing a tie. His shirt wasn''t completely closed, leaving his slightly muscular chest visible.

    He strode past several tables and stopped in front of them.

    "Hello everyone! I apologize for being late!" He exclaimed in a clear voice taking the group out of their discussion.

    "Oh Fell! Not a problem we just arrived." Walter brushed the matter and pressed a dial on the table. The floor opened, and a chair swiftly appeared in that spot. "Come!" He exclaimed while pointing at the chair.

    "Yo Brother!" Johnny loud voice greeted him. "You fixed that¡­ problem of yours?" He finished the sentence with a softer tone.

    "Yeah!" He responded while making a gesture with his left hand.

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    The rest of the group all sighed at the same time. Fell chuckled, and a wry smile appeared on his lips.

    His eyes darted all around the table as it was his first time seeing the Assault Team without their MechSuit.

    Down the street, in front of the entrance of the building where Fell''s group were currently chatting. The large crowd that was surrounding Fell''s earlier fight already left the street. Their fear bolstered their leg as they didn''t want to receive any misfire during the vendetta of the frail man''s family.

    A few minutes after the incident, several white trucks similar to the assault team''s vehicle dashed through the empty street before stopping in front of the giant metallic structure. They came driving with hastened speed, and their wheel scrapped on the asphalt as the vehicles came to a sudden stop.

    Along with the scent of the burned tire, the trucks'' back doors opened in sync. Several MechSuit''s left the vehicles. Their weight made the ground tremble as they encircled the building. Their formation was finished in a single breath showing their military might. One last sound resounded. A deep white metallic MechSuit touched the ground; its feet produced close to zero sounds compared to its earlier counterparts.

    The helmet moved rising in the direction of the sky, aiming straight at the top of the tower. An intense maliciousness fixed with hate escaped from the full body armor.

    "You think you can enjoy a free meal unscathed. I don''t know who you are but killing my son so blatantly in the street."

    "Even if he was a deject that could only use my power to abuse other''s in his life."

    "In the end, he''s my own flesh and blood. And for this, you will die!

    "Begin!" A deep and powerful voice escaped from the helmet, the potency of his voice was so powerful that the helmet didn''t muffle his voice like the other MechSuits. He didn''t even tremble during his speech. No sign of anger was present in his tone; only a striking cold calmness was present during the father''s statement.

    As soon as the command was uttered, its swift execution was done on the spot. The MechSuits'' metal plates in their back began moving, their squirm like movement caused the formation of two cannon in the place of their scapulae. Several screeches resounded as they quickly dashed into a flight, burning flames escaped from their back as they swiftly flew. Their speed made their ascension of the building spectacular, crossing several floors in less than a breath.

    The white MechSuit was at the forefront of the small army. His arms were crossed, and he broke through the air like a spear in a battlefield. His ascension was faster than the rest, and he swiftly closed the gap between him and Fell''s position.

    In the rooftop, the client of the caf¨¦ soon heard the jet-like sound that was approaching them.

    "What the hell could this be?" Asked a confused young man to his friends

    "It''s a MechSuit!" Screamed a black skinned man. His finger was pointing straight at the newcomer.

    High in the sky that turned red due to the closing sunset, in the middle of the red canvas was a white shining light that was emanating from the white MechSuit.

 Chapter 49 Booming Thunder

    The Leader of the MechSuit squad accelerated leaving his soldiers behind him. They didn''t pick up their speed to follow him since they were used to the old general''s antic.

    High in the sky, a shining white star streaked through the air. A long trail was left after its path leaving a faint arrow glowing in the sky.

    He was cutting the distance between him and his prey in a few moments. His breathing was calm as he cut through the sky. He lifted his eyes to the sky pondering, the death of that deject was far from going to break his legendary freezing coldness.

    "A quick and cold death should be the best for a case like this" He decided while streaking through the clear sky.

    For him it was simply another war, another battlefield. He was going to do as usual. He was only a soldier doing his job.

    But this time, as the target''s location was only a second away. His heart skipped a beat, an ominous feeling overtook him.

    "What kind of beast is this again¡­?" A weird sensation overtook him as the sight of the rooftop appeared in his eyes.

    This sensation lingered for only a few seconds before disappearing in the oblivion. As a man of the battlefield, he felt this feeling so much and so often that he was used to it. Impending doom.

    An odd light appeared in his eyes. No hesitation could be seen in them. He was ready to dance again. Goosebumps appeared all over his body.

    His speed instantly peaked for a second, making him reach a speed that made him difficult for the eyes to see.

    Having been to a plethora of battlefields, the pilot of the white mechsuit was a war general and a veteran of many great battles on top of that. In his mind, retreating was never an option. Plus, this time, It was a family business.

    Having steeled his mind, his body put itself in battle mode. Ready to face rivers of flames and torrents of metal.

    Amidst the deafening sounds of his jets. A discreet metallic snap resounded, and a chain reaction began in the back of his armor. Several metal pieces moved in sync.

    Their robotic movement happened fluidly clearing the way to the spinal cord of MechSuit.

    The War Veteran''s hand flowed to his back and firmly grabbed the handle of the metallic spine. He exerted some strength and a blinding light instantly appeared in front of him. A shining white blade appeared in his hand.

    His speed instantly died down and his body''s motion came to rest as soon as his motion decreased. He appeared in front of a black-haired youth. A fierce glint appeared in his eyes as he resolutely sent his blade streaking to the youth''s neck.

    "Clean and precise," He thought as his hand moved. This attack of his was something he was proud of, having developed it since the MechSuits arrived. It has been refined on the battlefield, making him win several battles that would have been difficult without it.

    Obviously, the youth that he was attacking was none other than Fell Pluck. He had noticed the attack the moment that it began; Having killed someone in clear daylight, he obviously wouldn''t be relaxed.

    Although he was chuckling. Sitting with the police crew as he watched Johnny get teased by Dorothy for his terrible loss against fell.

    "They came!" he though, the AI alarm resounding in his mind. His smile disappeared making his innocent aura leave his body as if it never existed.

    "Fast!", he though as a shining MechSuit popped in front of his eyes. No one saw him move, no sound was produced. The shining MechSuit appeared like a mirage mixing with clouds. "But¡­ this speed, although impossible I can deal with it!"

    A terrifying aura appeared around him. Although faint, his experience in the core made him exude a breath that made it difficult for others to support.

    He looked straight at where the MechSuit pilot''s eyes would be and smiled.

    His innocent smile added to the oppressive battle intent made the War General shudder. His heart tugged in his chest, as the ominous feeling he felt earlier reappeared. He was bitter as he was regretting his action.

    Unfortunately, there was no pill for regret as he could only keep executing his attack. Trying to stop his attack would only make him face a terrible backlash.

    Fell could clearly see that the sword was carrying an insane kinetic energy, it was the first time since his debut in the path of swordsmanship that he saw such a heavy sword strike. His interest spiked as fluidly took his own sword from his pocket.

    Soldier''s Fortune cried as it flew from the smooth scabbard. Firmly clenched in Fell''s sword hand, it cut through the air in a swift motion as Fell initiated his counter to the blitzkrieg-like ambush.

    At the same moment his sword was drawn, an explosive strength appeared from his feet and coursed through his body. The marble under his feet cracked as it could not support the strength that Fell was applying.

    His sword moved to the blade in front of it. Although slightly shorter than the blade, the sword didn''t lack any momentum compared to it. It screamed as it cut through the air blocking the MechSuit''s blade hack.

    No sound was induced from their movement and only the cracking tiles made the customers notice the scene.

    Dozens of heads turned in sync as the weapons were close to cross blows. The heavy saber and the black sword clashed.

    "Although you are battle hardened, I don''t believe you can guard this hit and leave unscathed". He humphed as the battle MechSuit''s jet roared one last time, adding even more momentum to the blade.

    Fell''s forearm bulged, veins popped from under his skin. They looked like various worms squirming under his skin.

    Fell''s bodily strength grew to a ridiculous degree after his breakthrough and now a simple exertion of his full strength was ridiculous, no Energy was used in his counter. Only pure bodily strength.

    A booming sound echoed as the sound produced from the War General Movement technique finally appeared. Thunder Haze was a technique that made it possible to conduct the kinetic energy from running speed to the user''s weapon. Although its effect was incredible with the human body, it produced an even more terrific might when it was used with a MechSuit.

    This technique was learned through enlightenment on the battlefield during his youth. And has been remodeled to be used while piloting a MechSuit.

    This technique was special as even the sound of the attack was a blow itself, disturbing the enemy right before the impact. His might on the battlefield was incredible as he could appear in the middle of a big fight, leaving booming thunder as he attacked.

    Unfortunately, the scene he was expecting didn''t happen. His ambush was seen through, allowing Fell to react. And even his sound attack came to failure as it was washed out by the sound of their weapon''s impact.

    "What a monstrous strength" The War General grunted under his helmet as he saw Fell calmly counter his strike without wearing any strength related suit.

    He was even forced back from the short but intense exchange. "This is clearly a beast in human skin, how the hell did he even achieve such bodily strength. Is he made of metal?" he though while forcefully stepping on the ground to diffuse the force that was sending him back.

    Their short exchange left the spectators baffled. They only noticed the white armored man after his sudden appearance, blade in hand, ready to unleash a vicious strike.

    Although a few of the customers noticed that MechSuits were close by, they didn''t think that one of them would sneak attack someone from the caf¨¦. To top it off, the target of the ambush was only a black-haired youth. Although his clothing showed that the youth dabbled in martial art. They would never have thought in their life that someone could exchange blows with a MechSuit.

    "What the hell. Am I seeing things?" Said a young man dressed in white Armani suit. His eyeballs were gorged in blood, and they were close to coming off his eye socket. "Billy!? Did we both see the same thing? Am I dreaming?" pointing to the scene, He asked a long-haired man that was standing behind him.

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    "Master. It seems to be true. Everyone saw it." He calmly answered while pondering. "It looks like those MechSuit are part of the Golden Family militia."

    "Oh! Still as knowledgeable as always." He responded without turning his head away. "I was against leaving the house, I always thought that this city was too boring." He shook while remembering what he just saw. "Woman, money, fame¡­ I never lacked those¡­ But this is the first time that I''m feeling this sensation."

    Billy pondered for a second, before deciding to not answer his master as it wasn''t a question. Under his calm and composed demeanor, he was in fact under even more shock than his master. He knew who the person in the MechSuit was. He recognized the attack, having read about it in a random report.

    "Looks like the old general is facing a thick wall" He tough with a hidden smirk.

 Chapter 50 Reveal

    The noble master and servant were fervently watching the scene unfurl in front of them. They didn''t want to miss a single frame of the fight.

    Others were running for their lives, in fact, they were too scared to get tangled in such a mess.

    Sounds of disarrayed footsteps resounded all over the place.

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    "Let''s leave!" Said one short-haired middle-aged man, his hand was grabbing the wrist of a charming lady. "Hurry, this will soon turn into a mess!" He urged her as his steps accelerated.

    The lady''s eyes couldn''t leave the mysterious black-haired youth. He left her such a deep impression that the sounds coming from her husband didn''t even enter her ears. Though, sensing the urgency of her man''s repetitive arm pulls, she could only unwillingly follow his hurried pace. She looked one last time at that juvenile figure dressed in martial art attire, before disappearing in the middle of the escaping mob.

    After a few seconds of cacophonous disorder, the rooftop was close to being empty. The few figures that were still there were youths from well-known families that had nothing to worry about.

    Their sense of security was so absolute in the city that even in front of a battle. Their eyes were glued to the confrontation in front of them.

    Fell and the armored general traded several blows in a few seconds. Fell spent most of his attention on diverting the blows of the general. Leaving enough time for the rooftop''s customers to leave the scene.

    "This should be enough." He assessed as he saw the police squad help the others leave the scene.

    He couldn''t help but feel happy as he saw Walter look at him with worry in his eyes. For Fell, that look meant the world as they were too few fellow humans who looked at him like that. He was always used to being looked at like a piece of trash lying at the edge of the pavement.

    He looked at the sky while making sure to enjoy the blissful sensation his heart was sending him.

    "You''re from that trash''s family." He said without looking at his opponent. "I killed him because he deserved it. Trash like him shouldn''t be alive as they will only be rotting humanity''s value."

    Hearing the youth speak for the first time. The old general couldn''t help but stay silent as he was conscious of the truth. Mimicking Fell, he also looked at the same direction and silently pondered before answering.

    "This old man is only a soldier. I was born a soldier, I grew up a soldier. I will die a soldier!" He firmly spoke. Showing Fell that what he was doing wasn''t his choice, but a necessity for the Golden Family.

    "And¡­ even if he was trash. You overstepped your boundary by sentencing him to death. And by doing that you declared war to our Golden Family." He paused and looked at the youth in front of him. "This old man''s body is too frail as it looks like my technique was seen through by someone this young. Please do tell this old man your name."

    Fell couldn''t help himself from birthing a seed of respect to the soldier in front of him. A war veteran of his caliber couldn''t be disrespected even as an enemy.

    "My name is Fell." He responded while looking straight at the old general.

    "Good name!" A laugh resounded from the helmet. "Now I will come at you at full speed!"

    "Come!" Fell responded with clear battle intent in his tone. He didn''t wait for the old man to come as he directly unleashed his body''s cultivation.

    His body shone with a soft red light. His muscle bulged and squirmed under his cloth. Hopefully, his martial attire could expand. The floor under their feet trembled as power kept being generated from Fell''s body.

    Ever since his last breakthrough, he couldn''t help but feel impressed by his own body''s growth.

    "The Massin Martial Art sure is great¡­" He thought while feeling grateful for Anzar''s teachings. "I need to get even stronger! This world is rotten and will keep rotting away! And I feel that a calamity will soon hit upon humanity!"

    Remembering the old general''s move. An idea popped in his mind. Speed was always one of his most powerful traits.

    His feet dug deep in the marble floor as he spends his upmost concentration on accumulating strength in his toes. His quads bulked, tripling in size under the shocked expression of the few spectators. Linking every single joint of his body, he darted forward in the blink of an eye.

    Fast wasn''t enough to describe the speed of his motion. As soon as his toes released the strength that was accumulating in his feet. An explosion resounded as the floor under his feet turned to a fine powder. He broke into Mach speed instantly after beginning his dash.

    Silence followed the first explosion. The spectators'' jaws gaped as they only saw both fighters disappear from their view. Looking around them, they quickly came to the conclusion that they left. If it wasn''t for the clear damage in the construct, they wouldn''t have ruled out the option that they were dreaming.

    "Guess he didn''t want us to see the rest of the fight." Said the young man dressed in the white Armani suit, he couldn''t help but feel pity as he turned to look at his servant. "Let''s go back home, Billy. My passion has been ignited. And I think that Grandpa will be happy when I tell him that I agree with him now!"

    "Of course, young master. It is finally time for you to begin your cultivation path."

    They walked away with leisure as the image of the short fight imprinted itself deep in their memory. The black-haired man''s figure was forever marked in his heart.

    The few other spectators followed them soon after as they made sure that the fight couldn''t be seen anymore. Pity and disappointment could be seen in their faces, as a sense of dissatisfaction invaded their soul.

    Several hundred meters away from the rooftop. A shining dot could be seen falling, streaking in the direction of the Earth. At first, it went unnoticed but as it approached the ground in its speedy descend. The shining dot turned into two figures.

    Inside of an office, in one of New Casablanca''s many buildings. The building served as an office for several small corporate. A young salaryman was currently doing his best to finish his daily objectives. In the middle of his work, he couldn''t stop but let a sigh and look outside of the window. During this short frame of time, he happened to see it.

    Two figures were falling at an insane speed in the direction of the ground. He couldn''t help but feel like he was in a dream. A black-haired youth, with a huge grin on his face, was viciously pounding a MechSuit in the chest.

    "How could someone be falling with a smile on their lips," He thought before focusing back on his work, "I should stop those medications. Sleeping early is good but now I''m starting to see things."

    Before he even had the time to finish his conclusion, he heard it. Booming sounds reverberated all over the street. This kind of noise was very similar to a machine gun blow, but it was even more piercing. As if someone was smelting a steel bar over and over. A shiver traveled straight to his spine. He instantly got up and looked outside. His neck creeped out of the office''s small window and his jaw dropped as he asserted himself to definitely stop his medication.

    "This job is going to make me go crazy. Vacation¡­ Yeah, I should ask for a vacation!" He assured himself before dwelling back to his work. A pile of paper was waiting for him in his office, and it wouldn''t take care of itself if it was left there.

    Of course, such a scene was apparent for one person. In the street close to the caf¨¦. They were several individuals that noticed this peculiar scene. In fact, in such time information was one of the most powerful tools that existed.

    It could be seen by the time it took the Golden Family to take action. Only an hour passed since Fell''s cold-blooded murder. It was obvious that his current fight was also seen by most higher-ups.

    "Who''s that kid! Quickly prepare all the information about him! I want them in three¡­ NO two minute!"

    "Impressive, So this is the extent of cultivation¡­ Very impressive¡­"

    "It''s HIM!!"

    "It seems like humanity''s last weapon is this weak¡­ MechSuits won''t fare against them¡­"

    Inside of a small room filled with high-end furniture was a middle-aged man. His facial features weren''t clear as the only source of light in the room was coming from several holographic screens. They repeated the scene of the rooftop over and over. In one of those screens were two figures that were free falling at an absurd speed.

 Chapter 51 Spotligh

    All over New Casablanca''s districts, people were paying attention to what was happening. Most of the main district''s higher up were paying attention to Fell. And what was most impressive was that some individuals were watching the scene since Fell''s kill.

    A few of them agreed with his actions, they couldn''t help but thank him, having taken out a rotten root from their dear city. They looked at the young man on the screen with a favorable expression. Others where frowning while looking at the matter.

    Researches were quickly done on Fell''s background. And reversing his tracks using the near-infinite number of cameras in the city. They quickly learned that he wasn''t an outsider but someone from the core. To their disbelief; hidden in the rotten core was a young, dashing and powerful, cultivator.

    They couldn''t help but shiver at that thought. How deep and powerful was the core actually? Fell''s actions may have been seen simply as a youth showing his might; But to others, deep inside, a sense of fear was growing in their hearts as the core soon transformed into a mysterious place to them.

    They weren''t scared of Fell. But they were more scared about who taught him and trained him. How many cultivators did they have? Where did they get their resources from? Those several questions reminded the higher-ups that the core wasn''t to be trifled with.

    Of course, the mysterious teacher was Anzar. And at the moment, he was far away from the core, having already left the vicinities. To top it off, Fell was the only person that interacted with him. That obviously didn''t mean that the core had no hidden powerhouses, the Darksun Gang and the Gladiators were a clean sign of that. The core was a hidden place that pushed individuals to the brink of insanity. Although Fell didn''t interact much with the hidden cultivators of the core as he left soon after training, he was sure and certain that some of them weren''t to be underestimated.

    Those metallic slums expanded several dozens of kilometers in the distance. Inside of that sea of metal sheets; among those millions of habitants, a few of them would be extreme geniuses that grew up and developed unique skills in a severely dangerous habitat.

    The water ran deep in the Core and this fact was indirectly made known to the higher up by Fell.

    Following the search of his records, preparations were made to contact him as they noticed the fight''s advance. Most of the higher up''s sights didn''t leave the holographic screen as their eyes were glued in the direction of the black hair youth.

    In the image, Fell was currently still in the caf¨¦. He had just parried the ambush of the old general and provoked a wave of shock through the city; as such, his name was known by all now and wouldn''t be forgotten so soon. The scene continued and the higher up saw the caf¨¦''s customers escape from the rooftop; A few of the higher rankers noticed people from their family staying in the rooftop. The fight continued with Fell unleashing the potency of his full cultivation causing even more shock to appear among the hidden spectators.

    "Incredible¡­"

    This thought was shared by all the higher-ups that were currently watching the scene unravel through the holographic screen. Then suddenly, inside of the office where most New Casablanca''s executives were, jaws dropped in sync as the executives were dumbfounded by what happened.

    Fell and the old general in a MechSuit disappeared from the screens. They couldn''t believe themselves as they just saw Fell tackle the armored soldier, throwing them both in the distance. It quickly became obvious to them that the youth simply wasn''t afraid of such height. He confronted the MechSuit headfirst with such force that their position was two streets away from the caf¨¦.

    As they began free falling. Fell began smashing and pounding on the armor, his forceful blow hit the metal with such speed that he gave people the impression that he grew several arms.

    Adding the strength of his blows to the count, their falling speed accelerated, and they were only three kilometers away from hitting the ground. Their background turned silvery-white as they were surrounded by the upper part of the sword-like a skyscraper.

    "Dorararararara!" They heard as he discharged several high paced blows on the armor; An energetic laughter accompanied a lightning-fast kick, sending the armored general flying like an arrow in the direction of the ground. Without a single pause in his movement, he accelerated midair, attaining a ridiculous speed that closed the gap, in the blink of an eye, with the MechSuit.

    This scene took quite a lot to explain, but its execution could only be described as instantaneous. The executives couldn''t think straight anymore as they saw Fell bully the MechSuit that couldn''t be described anymore as one. It was in a dilapidated state, and they couldn''t be sure about the old general''s state.

    "This is no longer a genius¡­ This is a monster¡­", one of the executives mumbled under his breath as he watched the grotesque one-sided bully.

    Soon the youth disappeared from the holographic live screen. His actions were executed in such a clean and precise manner that New Casablanca''s security system couldn''t keep track of him anymore. As soon as they lost track of him; the executives that were observing the scene immediately contacted their elders. They weren''t qualified to take care of this anymore. The only executives that didn''t contact their elders were from the four noble families.

    In the time they took to notify their superiors, Fell had already broken through the last layer of clouds that separated him from the city, an incredible sight appeared before him. His eyes couldn''t help but light up in front of such a view; making his eyes dart right and left as he finely juggled the old general.

    Although he gave the impression to others that he was going to kill the old man. His current actions were only an act. He needed to make a grand entrance; And if he was going to be known by all of New Casablanca''s noble families, then he had to show them his might. He wanted to make them understand that even if they had the thought of backstabbing him, they had to be in the possession of a weapon powerful enough to break his skin.

    Fell''s blows were finely controlled as they only left a few dents on the metal armor. Although the strength he used was immense, it only acted on the armor and not on the wearer. Such a feat was only made possible by his last breakthrough in the Massin Martial Art.

    The old general could only let himself be toyed with. He knew that his life could be ended with any random serious blow; Deep respect was birthed in his heart as he knew the importance of it. Having been on several battlefields, he knew deep down that it wasn''t always possible to let your enemies live; Such action could only be done by people truly powerful. Individuals that truly controlled life and death.

    Although Fell was far from having attained that level as he only debuted his cultivation journey. His natural talent coupled with Fell''s tempered and steel-like determination made him attain a might closer to divinity for the inhabitant of New Casablanca.

    In the end, this city wasn''t a Major City of the Earth. It was only one of the many cities that were spread on Earth.

    The Old General had seen too many things during his life. He sighed while facing the acute nausea that he was experiencing. He felt like vomiting inside his MechSuit several times but kept repeating inside his head that he couldn''t do so. Wanting to save his last shred of dignity as a warrior, he gritted his teeth and endured the rest of the free fall.

    Thankfully, he had already surpassed the peak of humanity and kept it a secret to his higher-ups. His countless battle during his soldier''s life made him a half step cultivator in the Soul System. Only lacking a single step to tread the path to immortality.

    Based on his surroundings, he knew that the high-speed free fall was coming to a stop soon. As his nausea intensified and his pores poured out buckets of cold sweat all over his body, he gritted his teeth through the heavy discomfort. His senses were in shambles, he wasn''t capable of telling south from north; If it wasn''t for his extraordinary will, he would have fainted much earlier. Although his will was close to being on par with a cultivator; His body, although trained for the majority of his life, was far from being equal to his will. Thus, the journey was quite challenging, but he still gritted his teeth with such strength that he felt they would shatter at every moment''s notice.

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    Pride was no longer the issue. Nobody would laugh at him if he fainted, even if he shat and pissed in his MechSuit it wouldn''t matter much. The higher-ups would even reward him, calling him a great hero for facing the black-haired demonic youth alone.

    No, it wasn''t pride that was keeping him awake. It was his tempered will, that had never progressed during his long life. He was feeling that as his brain and internal organs were going through a tempering of some sort from all the shacking, his bottleneck finally came to a stop.

    This matter meant everything to him, and due to that, he did his utmost to benefit the most from this heaven-sent opportunity.

    Unfortunately, as if the heavens themselves didn''t want his success. It came to a stop, as he was too focused on appreciating the changes his will was going through. They both landed on the ground sending a deep tremor all over the street.

 Chapter 52 An Immortals Descen

    A brief tremor shook New Casablanca''s central districts. The disturbance was noticed by everyone, but most individuals present there threw the matter over their heads as they thought it was a random earthquake.

    But to the pedestrians in a certain street of the central district; What they saw and heard was completely different. First, they heard it, it was similar to the sound of a thunderstorm slowly forming, but instead of being regular lightning. It had a very metallic tone to it, as if lightning itself was being refined by a blacksmith.

    Then as they finally saw it, the few individuals that were in the street understood what it was. Their jaws dropped to the ground as the source of the sound streaked in the direction of the floor. Hopefully, there was no car in the way or else it might have been a disaster. Nonetheless, the few people present began running for their lives as they saw it approach the ground with meteor-like speed. Some began praying, other sped as much as they could believing in the power of science to save whatever was left.

    Though, none of that happened. As the distance that separated Fell and the old general from the floor was merely ten meters. He grabbed the old general one last time, his arm jerked, and the old general was sent slightly upward. This motion negated the majority of the kinetic energy his body acquired during the free fall. The MechSuit was quite heavy. But to the current Fell, such feats were as easy as flipping a pancake on a pan.

    As for Fell, he faced the issue in a very straightforward manner. His feet touched the ground, but no sound was heard; Few saw the scene of his feet touching the ground, he tiptoed while landing as if he was just taking a step down from a staircase. No sound was made. To be more precise, no human was skilled enough to hear that sound.

    As he landed, he dissipated all of the energy his body had accumulated during the freefall on the ground. The humongous earth acted like a sponge that absorbed the full force of his dive, that energy spread miles and miles away producing a very mild grunty tremor. Some could say that the earth was groaning from pleasure.

    "Godly¡­ Am I dreaming¡­ I''ve read too much manhua. Yeah, this is just a near-death experience, I''ve read about them online¡­ Yeah, that''s the only explanation." Thought a random salesman that was passing by. "So, I''m dead. Well¡­ Unlucky for me¡­" He voiced all of his thoughts as he looked around, thinking that everything he was seeing was just a product of his dying body.

    The gentle and youthfully featured Fell was descending from the skies. He had a sort of holy aura that was emanating from him. He stood there, waiting, in the middle of the street; His hands were behind his back and his crow black hair danced with the wind as he calmly pondered on the next course of action.

    It was at this moment that he heard the salesman talk about his death in daylight. His eyes were wide open, and he was dumbfounded by his gibberish. He was impressed by humanity''s power of rationalization.

    Thud! A muffled sound of metal hitting the floor awakened him from his thinking. He turned his neck and saw the old general awkwardly stumble out of the MechSuit.

    What went up in the rooftop was a shining, glorious knight-like, MechSuit that was ready to go through fire and thunder. But what went down was a mess of metal sheet and wire that couldn''t be called a suit anymore. The old general patted his tattered clothes as they were filled with fine silvery powder. As he finished cleaning himself, he caught a glimpse of a body in a black martial attire. He recognized the figure that completely destroyed his MechSuit, but had helped him advance in his cultivation. Heavy respect appeared in his eyes, he bowed in the direction of the youth.

    "Thanks." A single word left his mouth. He who was always stingy with words, didn''t change his habit even when thanking a benefactor.

    A smile appeared in Fell''s youthful face as he pondered on what to answer. "It''s nothing. I don''t like killing people that much." He answered while lifting his hand ready to help the old general to stand tall. But the old man''s spine was as hard as metal, Fell he couldn''t break his bow unless he turned serious.

    "It wasn''t for that." The Old General added before turning around, he then swiftly began leaving the scene, "My name is Daniel. Daniel Morgan, come fetch me if you need any help."

    "Is this city filled only with weirdos?", he questioned himself as he saw the old general disappear from his view, "I thought the eccentrics were all in the core, but it looks like my reasoning was flawed¡­"

    "They should be here soon", he pondered while looking at the clear sky. "I''ve gifted them quite the special show¡­", he reassured himself that what he did was the right course of action as he patiently waited.

    Five minutes swiftly passed in a few breaths. During this short time, as if they were notified, the pedestrians left the scene. Before leaving, they bowed deeply in the direction of Fell. Respect was plastered all over their faces, and a few of them braced their minds and tried talking to him.

    "Hey br¡­ Hello Mister, do you mind helping this young one with an issue?"

    Fell calmly opened his eyes and looked at the young man. The youth in front of him seemed to be in teenage years, not higher than seventeen. He was wearing a clean suit, although slightly overused as it had a few marks here and there. He was well shaved and, from his posture and clothing, he knew that he was an official. Fell was surprised as he was sure that the youth in front of him was not a noble; Although his face was youthful, it was hardened by a few wrinkles, and it seemed that he was no stranger to hardships.

    A few seconds passed but no answer came to the question. The youth kept the same smile on his face, unmoved by the silence. As time ticked, the young official felt that this was a test from the senior in front of him. His thick skin was built and tempered through several trials, high was the number of butts he licked and his techniques were countless. His level of patience was incredible, one day he had to attend to a higher-up''s needs. He tremendously exerted himself, pushing through several of his limits. He had followed the Major Official to such a degree that he scared him. He never took a rest in his duties with 19 hours work days, and during rough times it would even go up to 20 hours.

    "I saw this golden opportunity. I have no intention of backing up unless you severely hurt me. I don''t think you will kill me. You will hurt me severely, but I will live. This is a golden opportunity! Cultivation¡­" His mind beamed at the chance in front of him, it was literally as if gold bars dropped from the sky and fell in front of his doorstep.

    Fell gradually understood that the young official in front of him wasn''t gonna move from his side. He looked straight into his eyes for a few minutes; this act made the official sweat buckets of cold perspiration. His back was drenched, and droplets slowly formed on his face as they slid over his chin. But his stubborn smile was still plastered; He fawned as he waited for Fell to answer his question.

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    "Oh. Let''s see if you can resist if I add this.", Fell mused as he rotated a little bit of soul cultivation base, "I''ll spread it a little bit around you, hmm¡­ Like this!" A little part of his will spread around the youth, it thinned as it twirled around his arms and legs. Then it went up his torso before climbing to his head. During the course, it got thinner as it approached the young official''s Glabella.

    "Let''s call it a Will Lock. With this, not only will you feel pressure all over your body, but the pressure will increase as you resist it. And if I add this, your will is going to pour out of your body at a faster rate.", while he applied his thoughts, his mental energy thinned as if it was reduced to a single strand. It pierced through the Young Official''s glabella.

    The Young Official''s, unmovable, fawning smile finally changed. He ushered a grunt as Fell''s mental pressure washed over his body. He felt the change happening to him and slightly panicked.

    "Don''t hesitate! This is your moment!" He screamed in his mind as he began shaking. His teeth clapped and his body shook like a leaf. He trembled so much, his unsteadiness would make anyone question if the wind wouldn''t send him stumbling away.

 Chapter 53 Youthful Official

    As he saw the effect of his mental energy''s application, He nodded slightly as he was satisfied by the effect it produced. He closed his eyes delving back into his thoughts. In front of him, the Young Official continuously shook as if he was going to plummet straight to the ground.

    "Impressive¡­ Sir! I''ve always been passionate about cultivation! I won''t quit now that an opportunity has presented itself!"

    The Young Official felt an overwhelming nausea as he felt like his innards were mixing inside his body. His limbs trembled; he looked like he was taken by a seizure. His eyed constantly flipped and rolled. His five senses were going through a vicious tempering.

    First was his sight, even with his eyes shut his mind kept being filled with hallucinations. He was having the impression of being next to a black hole; His sense of balance was twisted to a ridiculous degree, feeling as if he was constantly spinning in several directions.

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    His perception of reality was being bent by Fell''s Will as he was facing the trial. But the more time passed, the Young Official''s will kept decreasing. The shambling and distorted sensation of his senses and the pressure on his body gradually grew in their potency.

    "Difficult¡­. Wh¡­Arggghh¡­t is this¡­!" He managed to grumble while gasping for air and clenching his teeth to bear the pain.

    He knew it wouldn''t be easy, but he didn''t expect it to be so difficult. His mind began blanking under the tremendous pressure his mortal will was facing. As he lost control of his body; Fell activated the last part of this trial.

    "My dear child¡­" A sweet and tender, motherly, voice sounded in Wind XIan''s ears. A dazed look appeared in his face and he appeared a bit lost.

    "M¡­Mom.." Mumbled Wind Xian, who was currently lost in reminiscence and who seemed to currently be lost in a maze. His neck creaked as it painfully turned to look around him. But weirdly, from the moment he heard the voice, he felt darkness surround him and his eyes turned blind. As he turned around, the daze and the bewilderment he was feeling disappeared. Anguish, washed over his body, making him look tired; He was overexerted since his parents died. All of his past bravadoes disappeared and his will was slowly shrinking.

    He was disappointed in himself, sad that he didn''t show them any accomplishment during their lives. And even now he wasn''t satisfied. At this moment in his life where it could be said that he was successful. Having attained an official rank at such a young age was quite a feat. He came to somehow be proud of himself, helping him aim higher in his life.

    But something was lacking. He regretted his past self''s selfish action, even in poverty, he didn''t work to help. He didn''t study. He only blamed life for his family''s bad luck.

    He regretted his action as soon as his mother died. Lost and confused, the pain left him sleepless for many nights. He wanted to show her what he could do, but he never managed to. Regret left a bitter aftertaste in his life.

    Then his father died. He soundlessly followed his wife to the grave. Tired from the past calamities his family went through, he passed out during one of his drunken late nights of sleep. Never waking up again.

    Those losses left a deep hole in Wind''s mind. Since then, he never rewarded himself once for the rest of his life. Forever working, never stopping. He gave his body and soul to life.

    "This is enough¡­", he heard the voice speak again as deep, sadness and remorse, washed his body. "You can stop¡­", the voice continued, "You''ve done more than enough for your age."

    "NO." He growled in a harsh tone.

    He was driven by a powerful emotion. Regret¡­ Regret was a never-ending emotion; Thus his pain lasted forever.

    He stayed in this state for a few breaths. Only Wind knew how much it felt for him. But as he resisted the gentle voice pleaded, his stubborn will intensified. As he was facing his internal demon, he began understanding what was happening; This internalization was sending him straight to the path of Soul Cultivation.

    The Grand Way was just in front of him. Its large heavenly door was only a little bit further down. His ego was slowly being formed, and his obsession was long since formed. This workaholic was taking his first steps in entering the world of cultivation.

    As he was experiencing a slow but steady breakthrough, Fell was focusing on his surroundings, he knew that the noble families would come at any moment''s notice. Due to his personality, he began preparing and accumulating his potential. Although he wouldn''t wage war with the majority of the citizens, his personality made him prepare for every possible act.

    And due to what he showed them. It wouldn''t be impossible for the nobles to be preparing another attack. Thus, he began. His chest heaved as slowly inhaled; In fact, his inhalations might be called slow at this point. But the amount of Energy and Oxygen his body was getting from the surrounding space was ridiculous. As his chest rose high and down. His will was similar to a mighty sword, receiving its final honing before entering the battlefield blade. His will gradually turned sharper and sharper, and as it acquired a sharp quality it condensed.

    Similar to a blade being hidden in its scabbard. Fell might look like any normal youth in the district, but anyone who dared to cross his sight would feel as if their soul was being cut. This state was pushed to the apex he could as he waited while guarding the youth in front of him.

    "What a special seed. He is using regret as a source of his will."

    "The Energy System relies on the power of space. The Body System relies on the power of one''s own body, blood will turn potent and heavier as it attains heavenly might. As for the soul, it relied on the power of the will; It could be said to be intrinsically linked to emotion and ego. Without consciousness and ego, there would be no soul."

    As Fell met several cultivators in his life, and as he advanced in his own cultivation journey; His understanding of cultivation was gradually deepening and the void surrounding him was, slowly, being unveiled.

    "They came!" He thought while lifting his head to look at the sky. There he saw it; several Hover Pods were streaking in his direction.

    They pierced through the sky at an impressive speed before disappearing. They appeared a few dozen meters away from Fell''s position. Five Hover Pods were slowly circling around him as they continued their descent.

    Their descent stopped as they were still hovering a few meters higher from the floor. Their doors opened in sync, releasing an acute sound as their insides depressurized. Five figures appeared after the Pod''s door opened. They were hidden by a light smoke the door released when it was opened. But Fell could see them as clear as the sky.

    Interest flashed in his eyes as he saw the noble families'' executives for the first time.

    "They must have quite a big influence in New Casablanca. I showed them quite a spectacle, so they know my cultivation''s might. Now let''s see what their intentions are.", he pondered as he waited for the executives to take the first steps.

    A breath slowly went on. The light smoke disappeared, and the executives'' features appeared. They were wearing classy suits that flashed with several soft lights. The soft light was coming from a material that was embroidered on the soft tissue. The several lines that flashed soft lights formed a large array on the suit.

    The array had a light magnetic field that made sure that the suit was dust resistant. It also gave a hydrophobic quality and gave it high resistance to heat. Fell quietly assessed the quality of the executives'' suits; He couldn''t help himself but sigh in his heart at the quality of life in the main district.

    "Rich¡­", he mumbled under his breath, "I guess the Core is still centuries away from the Central District¡­ Humanity''s science went to such a high degree."

    "No wonder the people in the Core kept saying that the main districts were worlds apart from the Core. Truly the difference between the muddy ground and the heavenly sky!"

    One of the executives moved a step forward. His suit was fitted with many intricate golden lines; And on his head was a long, fine silvery, golden colored hair.

    "Young Hero, I am the current head executive of the golden family. I was sent here by the Elder of the family, he wanted to express our gratitude for having taken a tumor from our Golden Family.", he talked calmly. He was neither too fast, nor too slow during his speech. But respect was plastered on his face, as he didn''t want to be disrespectful in front of such a strong cultivator.

 Chapter 54 Migh

    As he remembered what his Elders told him. He couldn''t help but shiver at the thought of the communication he received.

    "He isn''t as strong as us four. We Elders of the Main Noble families are at the top of the first step of cultivation. But we noticed several clues that could explain his might. After a conversation with the other elders, we concluded that he was a legendary dual cultivator."

    "He isn''t to be trifled with¡­ He is existence is on par with us four.", he added, "Don''t provoke him if it''s not worth it.", he paused for a second, "He might also do more good to this city than you might expect. The relationship between us four families have gotten more fragile lately, and there are several lesser noble families on the rise."

    "This is a time of difficulty and hardships. But it''s also in time like these that opportunities arise! Invite him as an Elder Guest if you can! We might learn a lot from each other.", the Golden Family Elder finished. He planned to either turn Fell into an ally or make him the common enemy of the four noble families.

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    Those were the only command he gave to current family Executive.

    The Golden Family Executive knew what he had to do. He was well versed socially and was sure that he could manage the matter with certitude. He knew that Fell was someone beyond the executives'' league, he opted for a respectful tone when talking to him.

    But something happened that shocked his soul straight to its core. As Fell silently listened to what he said. The answer he gave was completely unexpected by the Golden Family Executive.

    "No worries!", he lifted his hand as if it wasn''t a big matter, "Here is the bill.", He casually added with a beaming smile on his lips.

    At first, he was taken aback and thought it was a joke, But then he saw the youth take out a napkin before sending it to him. The soft tissue flew like a kite before losing momentum in front of the golden-haired middle-aged man.

    A weird expression could be seen on his face as his eyes dropped on the object. As soon as he saw the number written, his calmness disappeared, and his wrist slightly trembled for a second.

    He wryly looked at Fell and saw the seriousness in his face before sighing. A blank look appeared on his face as he became depressed.

    "What the hell is this sh*t. This isn''t a prideful young cultivator. No, the youth in front of him was a shameless swindler. Not only did he kill one of them and bully another. He even wanted them to pay him for that.

    If it was a reasonable number, he wouldn''t mind. It might even create a solution to the issue, and their relationship could start anew. But on the napkin was written such an insane amount, that even if the Golden Family Root wouldn''t be plucked out, they would have to take out half of what they had in their treasury. They''d still have to sell a few companies to finish paying.

    The other executives were bemused by the Golden Family Executive. One of them also took a step and didn''t hesitate in speaking.

    "If the Golden Family is too stingy, we, on the contrary, are generous and accept to help him in paying you, Young Hero!" The Merendinis Executive took the opportunity to speak. "What a prick this executive is. How can''t he see this as an opportunity to befriend him." He thought as he looked at the Golden Family Executive.

    "We will also do so, Young Hero!" The Tagerio and Henrys Family Executive followed.

    The smile in Fell''s lips grew larger as he knew the events were going in a direction that pleased him. He whistled internally as he couldn''t help but think that the main district was rich, in his eyes the metallic shade of the street around him seemed to be paved in gold. He licked his lips as a strange idea popped in his mind, but he swiftly brushed it before feeling shame.

    What kind of idea could cause the young hero that was, shamelessly and brazenly, swindling the noble family to feel shame? What kind of twisted idea popped in his mind that made him think twice and doubt its feasibility? His thick skin was nurtured and developed in the core, few things could make him feel shame; And this new idea of him couldn''t be brazenly done. He needed to wait. Wait for the next opportunity.

    He thought of his next scheme while silently watching the scene unfurling in front of him. Due to the other three family butting in the matter of the bill. He was certain now that the four noble families had no way to get out of this. Unless they wanted to provoke him. Then, he would show them a different face.

    He calmly saw their expression drastically change, their eyes gaped wide and their jaw dropped in the direction of the ground. Regret swiftly washed over their faces, and a terrible after taste appeared in their tongue. They skipped a beat in their chest as they knew that they just lost a tremendous amount of money.

    If the amount he plundered from the DarkSun gang could be said to amount in millions of credits. What he was asking the Golden Family to pay amounted in Billions! It was obvious that even for them, that amount was ridiculously high, and it would empty a large amount of their resource.

    Although Fell wasn''t particularly interested in having a lot of money as he already had the resource he needed for cultivation. Growing in the core and having faced harsh poverty made him like those little gold coins quite a lot.

    Time gradually ticked and a few breaths where no one said anything. Seeing this, disappointment appeared on his face; He humphed and released some mental pressure, his will cultivation base rotated for a little bit.

    Seeing the Young Hero reaction, the Four Executives couldn''t help but shiver as they saw the youth in front of them grew higher in their sight. Their leg shook a little bit as an image of a gigantic Fell appeared in front of them. Their Pods were hovering a few meters high in the air, but they felt like they were tiny ants in front of such hegemonic might.

    He gave them the impression of facing a titan. Using his will cultivation to manipulate his foes'' soul was one the soul system application. And due to them already having seen his fights; they wouldn''t doubt that the illusory giant in front of them was just Fell''s bodily strength.

    Of course, Fell''s body''s cultivation didn''t grow to such a high degree. Although he could force his body to enlarge, it would be nowhere near as he exaggerated it to be.

    The Four Executives did their best to shoulder the pressure coming from Fell. But their memory of the earlier fight and the scene in front of them made their hearts throb painfully. They did their best to resist the current pressure. But the difference between them and Fell was too big. They knew that even if they went together and called for backup, the fight wouldn''t go for more than a few blows.

    The four executives slowly came to accept their faith.

    "Of course, we will pay the Young Hero." Said the Tagerio''s Executive.

    "We will just need a day no; a few hours will do!" Added the Henrys'' Executive. The Merendiris Executive sighted before nodding, showing that he also agreed to the term.

    "Wow, I thought they would sell the Golden Family. But they decided to stick together.", he thought as he saw their reaction, "It looks like they have some kind of agreement between them on how to deal with me. Let me see how far I can go!", he silently mused before nodding in agreement with them.

    "Thanks! Do you mind giving them to me on this card?" He said, sending while flicking his wrist. A metallic credit card speedily rotated in the air; And flew straight to the Golden Family Executive who swiftly caught it. He politely grabbed the card with two hands, as if afraid to damage it, before adding.

    "We are organizing a banquet in your name, Young Hero. It will be a grand opportunity for the youth of the city to meet someone extraordinary from their generation, I hope you will do us the immense pleasure to bless us with your presence." He spoke fluently without pause. He then silently bowed one last time before departing; He then turned without waiting for an answer, hopped inside his Hover Pod. His vehicle blinked once before disappearing in a corner.

    "It was a pleasure meeting you Young Hero!" The three other Executives bowed politely before leaving an invitation to see their clan''s domain; All three of them hopped inside their Hover Pods and left the street to its previous silence.

    Fell could be seen waving his hands to the Hover Pods. On his face was a satisfied smile, he sighed before thinking.

    "Quite fruitful! Looks like I need to go to that party¡­" He thought for a second, before turning his head in the direction of the silent Wind.

    Wind was unaware of what happened in his surroundings. If someone told him that the Four Noble Family just got beaten, then got asked for payment, he wouldn''t have dared to believe it.

 Chapter 55 Nutrient Rich

    It took twenty more minutes of patience for Fell to notice some changes in Wind''s condition. As a fellow senior cultivator of the soul system, he knew what the Young Official was going through. Facing one''s own internal demons was a major step-stone in the path of immortality. It could even be said by some that it was the true first step.

    There were many ways to acquire a soul cultivation base. Some rare and mysterious races were unparalleled on that aspect. From the moment they were born, they would be capable of freely controlling their mental energy. That natural advantage made it much easier for them to advance in their cultivation journey.

    Others used pills to skip this step. But the way that was the most common and the most straightforward, was by using one''s own internal demons as fire. A fire that was going to refine and cleanse one''s own emotions to form Ego. That Ego would then become the core of the soul system.

    This was the most orthodox way used in the universe. It could be said to have no shortcomings as it completely relied on the cultivator''s own dedication and hard work.

    Fell was only in the first Realm of the Soul Cultivation. He still didn''t form his own Ego as it was still being nurtured by his will. Though, having already faced his internal demons, he was capable enough to help the Young Official.

    He waited a few more minutes before deciding to take Wind with him in his apartment. The journey was done in the blink of an eye as Fell traversed the city''s main district.

    He appeared in front of the building where he rented his place. During the short trip, Wind didn''t show any sign of awakening. His eyes, hazy and clouded, didn''t move as if they weren''t noticing the change in the surrounding.

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    He was in such a state of internalization that he didn''t notice anything. Fell took him through the elevator. Silence permeated the metallic box for a few moments before the door opened. Fell walked through the floor while lifting Wind from the collar.

    He opened his apartment''s door in one motion then entered. He mindlessly threw Wind in an empty room before going into the kitchen.

    "Today was a good day!" He hummed as he thought about the earlier course of action. He opened the fridge, ready to cook himself a gargantuan meal. "I still can''t believe that they accepted to pay me¡­" He couldn''t help but laugh out loud as he grabbed a basket filled with potatoes.

    "I must stay on guard, although I''m not afraid of the Four Families as I can always run away." He pondered with a serious face. In his hand was a fine silvery cooking knife. It was similar to a Santoku in shape and it''s cutting edge gleaned under the kitchen''s light.

    After a few knife strokes, in front of him was a large basket filled to the brim with peeled potatoes. "They will retaliate. I made the first move and stole food from their belly.", he thought while trotting to his fridge, he opened the freezer''s compartment and grabbed a meaty piece of beef.

    The meat had a very light pink color and seemed to be a piece of quality. "Meat like this is very hard to find in the core. But here, resources of quality are found everywhere.", he judged as he eyed the beef with hunger marked in his eyes. He gulped before readying him, he focused on the meat in front of him before flicking his wrist. His arm blinked a few times, and in front of him were a dozen meat pieces.

    As he saw the result of his act, a satisfied smile appeared in his juvenile face. In front of him were the dozen of steak pieces he had made from the beef he had. The meat''s pinkish color and the several intricate lines that the fat formed gave made it very pleasing to the eyes.

    "Looks like my cooking skills grew up quite a lot!", he mused as he remembered all the odd jobs he did in the core. It wouldn''t be a lie to say that Fell was a jack of all trades. Although the majority of his skills were flawed and shallow, he was now a cultivator, and to top it off he cultivated all major three systems. The control he had over his body made it possible for his other skills to grow at an incredibly fast pace.

    "Let''s do this!" he said with resolve shining in his eyes.

 Chapter 56 Loud Grumbles

    He took a few steps in his kitchen and opened his cupboard. He took out a large cauldron shaped pot, filled it with water; he then lit up the electric plate and started boiling the water. At the same time, he began preparing the steaks. He took a bowl and mixed salt, pepper, oil, lemon juice, soy sauce, garlic and several herbs. He left it to marinate on the side, then threw the peeled potatoes in the metallic pot.

    He then opened several cupboards in a row, looking for a frying pan large enough to cook all the steaks he had prepared. He finally found one large enough, and put it on the electric plate before adding oil to the base.

    He waited for the oil to attain a high enough temperature, then softly put each steak on the pan. As time passed, he adjusted the sides of the steaks to make the roasting even. Compared to before, he did not fear the temperature of the oil nor did he fear getting burned by the blazing hot pan. His left hand was firmly grasped around the frying panhandle, and he was using his other hand to flip the steaks using his fingers.

    His sharp senses made it possible for him to pinpoint the precise temperature where the steaks inside wouldn''t harden. It was the contrary, the fat in the steak cuts was melting, rendering and mixing with the oil. The several condiments he added were also mixing their flavors with the meat. His nose was picking an anthology of flavor through his nostrils; He could practically taste the meat by smelling it. He began salivating as he anticipated the tantalizing taste.

    Noticing that it was enough. He took all of the steak pieces on a silvery-white plate and switched off the fire. He let the steaks rest for a few minutes to maximize the juice inside the meat. Grabbing his Santoku, his wrist flicked and after a few breaths; The beef steaks turned into fine slices of meat. They looked juicy and tender, and they lightly fumed under the kitchen''s soft light.

    He nodded with satisfaction as he wasn''t that confident in nailing such a large-scale cuisine. But it went without any mishap, and the result in front of him made his stomach release a terrifying grumble. He stopped himself from ravaging the meat plate and continued preparing his dinner.

    While advancing toward the pot that was containing the boiled potatoes, his feet stopped in his track as he looked at the ceiling. "Will it be enough for the both of us?", he thought about the Young Official that was on the other side of the wall while eying the dinner that was in preparation.

    "Guess I will be a little bit more reserved tonight¡­" he decided before resuming his duty. He emptied the pot''s water in the sink, leaving only the stack of fuming golden-colored boiled potatoes. Throwing a handful of salt and pepper and some butter to the mix, he then began crushing them. With a few motions of his limbs, the boiled potatoes were turned into a mash.

    He nodded satisfying before leaving the kitchen. He swiftly traversed his apartments to look at Wind''s condition; He licked his lips as he walked, having cooked awakened his hunger. He felt that if he didn''t control himself, he might wolf down all the food that he prepared.

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    But, to his disappointment Wind didn''t show any sign of waking up. He was sitting on the couch, looking straight at the wall in front of him. His eyes, blank and dead, didn''t seem to look at our world as he delved in his abyssal thinking. As time went on and as Fell kept his senses close to Wind to monitor him, He began noticing a change.

    The change happened in Wind''s eyes. As time passed on, Wind''s eyes turned into a strange commodity. They began losing their cloudiness, but at the same time; The dark and dead vibe that was in Wind grew in power.

    "Finally!", he gasped softly as he focused on what was happening in front of him, "Although I have passed this step, there is always a benefit in seeing how others do. I might learn something interesting."; The road of cultivation, broad and large, wasn''t confined in a single way. The path was numerous; thus, an individual''s own creativity was important when it came to cultivation.

    Although, not all cultivators went through grand and mysterious paths. But, inside of normality was a speck of originality. Cultivators were like grass, similar in the form but completely different in their core.

 Chapter 57 Earthlings

    A few seconds after Wind''s change. Fell noticed that the temperature of the room was falling at a ridiculous level; And as the deathly aura around Wind accumulated, the coldness in the room accentuated. Of course, Fell wasn''t bothered in the least by the aura. His body was too resilient to be damaged by it, and his sharp will would shred the aura every time it got close to his mental core.

    Interest flashed on Fell''s face as he watched the scene unfurling in front of him. As the temperature in the room was severely dropping, Wind''s death aura kept spreading around him. His eyes were no longer hazy, and even if he still looked at the wall in front of him. Focus reappeared in his deadly eyes. Suddenly, all of the deathly aura in the room retraced their route, as whirlwinds of chilly auras dashed toward Wind.

    They soon found a home inside of his eyes that kept flashing with cold lights. And to Fell''s surprise, as the grayish colors of death accumulated inside of Wind''s eyes, a dot of pure white appeared in the middle of his pupil.

    "I don''t know exactly what he went through. But he had died, it must have happened a few years ago.", he lifted his eyes to the ceiling with a serious face. "From the living to the dead, and from the dead to the living. It seems like he gained quite a lot from facing his inner demons.", he pondered as he watched the changes in Wind continue. "I have a hunch that he will become a strong cultivator in the future."

    A few minutes passed, and all of the auras disappeared; It swiftly condensed into a crescent-shaped dot in his eyes. The dot''s shape was similar to the moon''s lunar crescent, and it flashed a few times repeatedly. Every time it blinked, it absorbed the residue of death energy in the room. It flashed one last time, dyeing the whole room black during an instant, then it disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

    The room''s temperature began slowly rising. The source of the coldness having disappeared, the room''s temperature was soon adjusted by the building''s internal heat system. During this slight window, Wind finally regained consciousness.

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    "Ughh¡­ Where am I?" He ushered with difficulty as he tried to look around him. None of his earlier grandness could be seen on him. He looked the same as before, a youthful official. But his face was clearer than before, and he looked younger. The few marks of aging that he gained due to his stressful life were washed away during his first cultivation session.

    "I''m Fell, you are currently at my place. What''s your name?" Fell answered.

    Wind looked at the youth in front of him. He gasped softly as his memory of the past events flashed in his mind. Joy appeared on his face as he got up and bowed in front of the juvenile faced senior in front of him.

    "Th¡­Thanks, Senior!", he stuttered in a haste. His heart thumped in his chest, never in his dreams would he have thought that he would benefit from their talk this much. Seconds passed and he began noticing the changes that occurred to his mind.

    His thoughts were now flowing freely in his mind as if prior to that, there was a veil blocking his thoughts. As he focused on this strange feeling, it intensified. A windy current appeared in his mind and spread all over his body. He felt a strange link between his body and noticed that his body-mind connection had strengthened. Immersing himself in the joy of cultivation, he began trying to control the windy current that he was feeling.

    "It is a manifestation of your will. Consider it as your mental energy, overusing it means that you will empty your mind''s batteries" Fell began explaining as he saw Wind interact with his newfound power. "You have now opened a breach in the grand door of immortality. But this is only the first step." He paused, "We aren''t yet at a stage where we can call ourselves true-blooded cultivators.", he further explained to Wind.

    Wind nodded as he pondered on what he heard. "By we¡­ You mean Earthlings?", he asked to confirm his thoughts.

    Fell smiled as he similarly nodded, confirming Wind''s doubtful question. He then opened his mouth and explained, "We Earthling are still new to cultivation. The cultivation era has begun. The universe, grand and everlasting, is here for us to discover. Unearth its mysteries, understand its truth and you will attain immortality." His voice boomed in Wind''s ears.

 Chapter 58 Big Brother Fell

    The young official felt a chill traverse his body as his mind wandered in imaginary higher realms. He dreamed of heavenly valleys and mysterious temples. He dreamed of unearthing the several treasuries that they contained. He would stand proudly in front of the heavens. Accompanied by numerous otherworldly fairies and realm-toppling maiden, he dreamed of toasting with the sun and the moon itself.

    As he lost himself in his reveries, the excitation he felt was shown clearly on his face as he chuckled. The dumb expression on his face made Fell doubt his choice.

    "Was he really a good choice?", he thought as he saw Wind shiver from pleasure. "Ahem¡­", coughed Fell to grab Wind''s attention but to no avail. Fell coughed several times in a row but stopped after a few tries. Seeing that Wind was seriously lost in his dream, he approached him and lifted his limb. His serratus anterior contracted and his limb flashed in front of him.

    Clap! He clapped his hand together producing a violent boom. The soundwave reverberated for a few seconds in the room before dying. A shocked expression appeared on Fell''s face, "Even this sound can''t take him out of his dreams", he mumbled with his fingers placed on his lips. "Well, it must be related to the fact that he is a soul cultivator¡­"

    Time passed and an annoyed Fell sent his soul energy straight toward Wind''s. "This should shock him away from his dreams!", as he talked, it was as if his words willed it; And Wind unintentionally released a pained yap with a hiss.

    "Why did you do that¡­" Wind mumbled with a sad tone. Fell didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry in front of the puppy-eyed Wind. He lifted his hand to his face and coughed before locking his sight on Wind.

    "You lost yourself in your dreams¡­ What a great soul cultivator¡­ What were you dreaming about?" Fell looked straight into Wind''s eyes while crossing his arms.

    "Uhmm¡­", a bashful expression painted Wind''s face red. Hopefully, he quickly recovered himself and fluidly spoke, "Nothing important Senior! This little one only dreamed about some little success that I hope to achieve during this lowly one''s life."

    Good wits and a sharp tongue were Wind''s weapon during his whole life. He quickly understood during his childhood that if he spoke long enough, he might get whatever he wanted. This skill was further tempered during his time as an official where he had the opportunity to learn the famed persuasive skill. What was black would become white, and what was white could be turned into black.

    Learning from the very best, he had rarely been beaten in a fight of words. And even in front of Fell, he managed to evade his question skillfully without any difficulty.

    "But it''s true that what I saw¡­ How it felt like¡­ It felt all too real¡­ Is this part of my abilities as a soul cultivator¡­" Wind pondered on the matter as he followed Fell in his steps.

    "Are you hungry?" Asked Fell without turning around.

    "Yes Senior. I could eat a bull at this point!" He mindlessly spoke to show his enthusiasm.

    "Drop the Senior, our age isn''t too different.", responded Fell tonelessly.

    "Even if it''s true, Senior is still the one who is introducing me to the concepts of cultivation¡­", he went again with his usual bravado. He looked saddened, and it was with an expression that showed his mixed feeling that he nodded and agreed to Fell''s remark.

    "Big Brother Fell", he timidly blurted while blushing. His voice was soft and as soon as it entered Fell''s ear, he felt a chill traverse his spine and paused during his steps.

    "That''ll do the job¡­" Fell''s speech and walking speed augmented as he distanced himself from the young official. Wind followed closely behind Fell, as he walked his sight was locked on the ground and he mumbled "Big Brother Fell" with a soft voice. His eyes sparkled and the more he repeated it, the stranger it sounded when it entered Fell''s ears.

    It was with this weird vibe that they entered the kitchen. Fell swiftly sat down in front of the dinner he cooked and began eating without a word.

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    "Are we having guests tonight Big Brother Fell?" Wind soft voice spread through the question as he saw Fell attack the gigantic portion of meat and mashed potatoes.

    Fell turned deaf during the rest of the meal as he wolfed on the gargantuan meal.

 Chapter 59 Sharing Meals

    Wind was dumbfounded by his big brother''s act. He couldn''t help but be impressed by his incredible focus when it came to eating. No pause was made in his action. Fell''s hand advanced to the plate filled with steaks, his hand would move toward his mouth a few times. Then the cycle would repeat, and in between each bite on the meat, he would fill his mouth with mashed potatoes.

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    He was in such a blissful state that he forgot about Wind, about cultivation, about everything. The tender meat would dissolve in his mouth after chewing it once or twice. It was top-quality meat, tender and juicy.

    As Wind saw that Fell was ignoring him. He didn''t take it at heart and did the same as his newfound big brother. Grabbing a pair of fork and knife, he took a round piece of meat. His knife cut into it like butter, he then threw the portion in his mouth. Shortly after that, a moan escaped from his lips as his eyes opened wide in surprise.

    He looked at Fell, then at the meat and finally understood why his big brother was ignoring him. He had prepared so much delicious food for him, but there he was watching it. That was just a pure lack of respect for this delicious food.

    Although it wasn''t made with fancy ingredients, and wouldn''t be a top-quality course in a three-star restaurant. But the meat''s tenderness made it easy to eat, and the mashed potatoes added a flavor that made one lose himself in the dinner.

    "You really are talented, big brother." Said Wind after a few bites. But it was to no avail as Fell was lost in his plates. The speed at which he ate made Wind''s heart thumb from fear, although it was just the act of eating. But even such simple daily life necessity had a vicious vibe in it when done by Fell.

    Seeing that there was no conversation to be made. He mimicked his senior and fully delved in the dinner. Close to twenty minutes later, a loud burp resounded in the kitchen. Next to the table, two youths were facing each other as they patted their filled belly.

    Wind had eaten so much that a greasy layer of sweat was on his face. He opened his lips and exhaled a long moan as he slightly moved, he felt slight pain from his filled stomach.

    In front of him, Fell also had a slight bulge in his stomach. But, the difference between them was that Fell''s stomach went into a super-digestive mode, having detected that a large amount of nutriment had made its way into his stomach. It turned into a black hole and absorbed everything that trespassed into the domain. It then turned the nutriment into energy that was sent to spread all over through his body to get absorbed, but as it was normal food; It wouldn''t help in his cultivation but it could help him regain what he used during the day.

    As they patted their belly in satisfaction and licked their lips to experience the meal''s flavor one last time in their mind, Wind looked at Fell with the intent to strike a conversation with him. He opened his lips and was about to speak, but he stopped in his course as he noticed that Fell wasn''t up for chit-chat. He was looking away, pondering on some deep thoughts.

    The moon shined faintly in the night and was currently high in the sky. It hovered proudly around the Earth, illuminating New Casablanca''s night with a soft glow. This night, the moon had a weird reddish tinge; Fell pressed a button from a panel that was on the side of the table.

    Suddenly, a large screen appeared on the wall. On that screen was a view of New Casablanca''s main district, and that sight would be the exact point of view of the city if there was a window in his kitchen.

    As he looked at the soft glowing red moon. Fell''s eyebrows rose slightly before dropping to his normal face, his heart thumped as he felt his blood flow faster in his veins. He looked at the ceiling as he pondered. He regulated his breathing as he tried to understand what was causing these movements.

    "Is it due to what I ate¡­ No!", he denied as he knew that the meal; Although rich, wasn''t nutritive enough to cause a noticeable reaction.

    "Maybe there is a treasure related to body cultivators close by?" his eyebrows were lifted high as this thought flashed in his mind; A pearly smile, fresh and enthusiastic, was drawn on his lips as his hunger was awakened.

 Chapter 60 Crimson Bubble

    "If it can affect my blood flow. Then it should probably be a treasure with affinities related to blood!" His brain lit up as he exclaimed. He swiftly closed his eyes and took a deep breath to switch his focus on his surroundings.

    At the same time as his senses were expending outwardly to their upmost. He fiercely retracted it and focused all of his senses to his body. He then proceeded to focus it on a single blood cell.

    Pop! He heard the sound of a bubble popping in his mind, and his vision was troubled for a short period. His view was rendered black for a few seconds; Then, a blinding light flashed in his mind chasing away the darkness.

    This act of his had completely changed what his eyes saw. The walls and objects present around him were darkened, but he could still precisely pinpoint any object in the room. It was just that his senses were focused on something else. To be more precise, his eyes were neglecting the majority of the items and construct in his surroundings; But his sensitivity to blood was sharpened to a terrifying degree.

    In this special state, Fell''s sight was completely different. All around him; blood bubbles appeared, those were all the individuals that were currently present in his apartment''s building. He could no longer see Wind''s features with details, but he could still differentiate it with his body''s frame. Although did he need to see with these skills of him.

    "With this, it should be easier.", he assessed as he eyed the potency of Wind''s blood in front of him. "Weak¡­", a blurt escaped from his lips as he could see Wind''s blood flow through his veins.

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    "Well¡­ He never practiced body cultivation¡­ But it doesn''t seem to be a good idea for him to specialize in body cultivation¡­", he pondered on Wind''s natural cultivation affinities with the three systems as he began to inspect his building to get used to his ability.

    In front of Fell, Wind could feel his big brother''s sight traverse his body. A bashful smile took over his face as he felt that the person in front him could see through every secret his body contained. His cheeks turned red and he began avoiding his brother''s sight. "Terrifying¡­", Wind''s soft voice resounded through his mind as he exclaimed in front of his brother''s might.

    Fell shortly ignored Wind''s direction for his cultivation and focused back on his detection ability.

    "Blood detection. I should focus more on this ability of mine starting now¡­" His mind kept working on the next courses of action as he kept trying to investigate the blood-related treasure.

    "First let''s see Blood Detection''s maximal range." He thought as his sight turned into a growing bubble. His sight was no longer on a 180 degree but was turned into a mixture of his senses, becoming 360-degree radius.

    This strange sensation was quite unusual for him, but he knew that this effect would dissipate with enough repetition.

    The bubble expanded lightly, and as it grew. He began seeing the red bubble-shaped dot''s in his surroundings. And as his blood detection skill expanded, other red dots were added to his mental chart. Their shapes differed slightly but what was unique to them was a strange flavor that each dot had. Strangely Fell could feel that every dot''s essence was similar but different at the same time.

    "Interesting¡­", Awakened by this discovery, his thirst for power followed suit as he continued his research. As the building completely appeared in his mental chart, each apartments'' walls could be seen there. Although his blood detection''s precision when it came to physical objects was average; It was more than enough to map his surroundings.

    Then, as he felt that the range was more than enough. He began researching the slight difference in the essence of each red dot. He began with his own source of blood as he had the most potent blood in his surroundings.

    "Researching the essence of my own blood is easy and hard at the same time.", His eyebrows lifted into a frown as he pondered on a solution. "Although it is the most concentrated and potent, the fact that I''m a cultivator makes my blood essence to be much more complete." His head rested on his chin as his eyes flashed with multitudes of lights giving Wind the impression that his brother was in the midst of doing something important.

 Chapter 61 Bloody Rush

    As he knew where the problem was, he diverted his efforts in two ways. He began inspecting each red dot, delving deep into their origin. He analyzed them and tried to deduce their essence. His neighbors were all normal citizens of New Casablanca''s rich district. Although they were healthy, their blood essence was far from being as complex as cultivators.

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    "Blood is closely related to life and the living realm in general. In the human species, blood is used as a means to transport nutrients and oxygen to the organs. To us cultivators, it is our body''s energy storage system, the thicker and the more potent the better.", the more red dots he inspected the greater his understanding of blood became. "Although mortal and cultivators aren''t exactly the same. They are still two stems of the same plants. Thus, the cultivators'' origin point is mortality. By comparing my blood and this city''s citizens'' blood essence. My understanding of blood essence will be complete enough to help me look for the blood treasures!"

    Having derived a plan in his head, he immediately began its execution. His senses were completely focused on the analysis of the blood dots. He entered the same state he had attained in the core. Workaholic Fell was back, and he would push himself to a vicious degree in the hope of attaining success.

    Minutes ticked and an hour quickly passed. He had finally analyzed all of the blood dots on his apartment''s floor. All of the neighbors'' blood was analyzed, he mentally dissected each one and looked deeply into its origins.

    "What is essence?", This question was repeated in his mind ever since he finished analyzing the closest neighboring apartments on his floor. And he repeated it every single time he finished fully inspecting a neighbor''s blood essence.

    "What does essence even mean?!" As time passed, his mind forgot everything and spent all of its focus on his quest.

    After a few hours, Fell was alone in the kitchen. He hadn''t moved a single step since the dinner, his obsession made him unable to quit his current task. Wind had already left to sleep, seeing that Fell was too focused on noticing his presence. He stayed a few hours sitting in front of him, before departing to sleep in the room across the wall. Of course, sleep was only optional to Fell thus he had no plan to cancel his research to rest.

    His eyes were gorged red from his repeated use of his detection ability. Although it was painful, he swiftly ignored it and reactivated his blood ability. Time passed, and Fell''s research began affecting his body. His hair was disheveled, and his cloth was unkempt. His frustration was showing on his body as the more he attempted to understand what blood''s essence was, the more he emptied his mind''s batteries.

    "What the hell!" He screamed as his hand moved through his hair in frustration. His clothes were wet from all his perspiration. And inside of the soft lighted kitchen, his eyes released a vicious red glow.

    "My mind can''t process such a vast amount of information! Who would have thought that even mortal blood was so mysterious¡­" His shoulder dropped down as fatigue began showing on his body. He got up and washed his face, then sat back on a chair with a glass filled with water. He gulped the glass in one go and looked at New Casablanca''s rich district from the screen in the wall.

    It was currently late in the night, and there was only an hour or two before New Casablanca''s citizens woke up. The streets were calm, a calmness that he wasn''t used to in the core. Although this part of the city was interesting. Fell couldn''t help but think back about the core, about his friends; His mind dozed off for a few minutes, and his memories with Anzar appeared in his mind. In the middle of the reminiscence, he thought about what was happening in his life. About his road to immortality. His resolve was ignited during this short period.

    "I won''t accept this result!" He gnashed his teeth in frustration before reactivating Blood Detection. A wave of stinging pain traversed his body as the building''s chart appeared in his head again. "

 Chapter 62 Elevators Music

    And that was how Fell spent the night. Each time he finished analyzing a red dot, a wave of pain would wash over his body and brain. He would tremble endlessly while sitting on a chair. His eyes'' condition worsened with each usage of Blood Detection, but he would ignore it and grit his teeth while reactivating it.

    Time passed and dawn was making its way. In the midst of his tiredness, he looked outside of his apartment. A magnificent view of the sun slowly making its way to the sky appeared in his sight. The breathtaking scene took off his mind from cultivation for a second.

    "And another red dot. At least, this one ain''t filled with mysteriousness¡­", he thought as he watched the astral fireball illuminate the city with its first tender light rays. "I heard it was just a huge ball of hydrogen, in its core the hydrogen turns into helium through fusion. This fusion produces a terrifying amount of energy.", an article he read about the sun flashed in his mind.

    He gradually calmed down as he forgot everything about Blood Detection, his sight was fixed on the rising sun as his chest also rose up and down. He fully breathed in, filling his lungs to their maximum capacity. Then, he breathed out, emptying all the oxygen that was in his breath. As his breathing technique cycled, his mind was cleansed from all the frustration that came with his earlier failures. After a few minutes, he was back to an optimum state.

    "What if the red dots were like the sun¡­" As he calmed down, he began seeing the red dots from another point of view. "What If I take the red dots as hydrogen. Then it''s essence should be the helium in fusion in its core.", his eyes flashed with several lights due to his brain processing many computations in a few moments. "What turns hydrogen into helium is heat, then what is the factor that condenses blood into blood essence¡­" His mind pondered on the subject as he felt he was getting closer to the truth.

    At this point, Fell didn''t even care about the blood-related treasures. It was his kindled pride as a cultivator that lit up; And like a candle in the dark, as long as his passion existed it would keep lighting his surroundings in his search of higher mysteries. That was Fell''s truest quality as a cultivator, it was his intense curiosity and unbreakable will that made him pursue the mysteries of the blood essence.

    "I need to go take a walk¡­ practicing Blood Detection here will half my progress. I need to analyze a wider variety of blood essence. Only then will I get a slight chance at understanding the essence of my own blood.", Fell''s character made him immediately leave his apartment as soon as he took the decision.

    He washed his face and put on a casual attire he had found in the dressing room. Then he left the apartment, leaving the still sleeping Wind''s inside.

    As it was still early in the morning. He met no one from his floor, and the few he met were leaving for their job. He soundlessly arrived in front of the elevator and pressed the button. He was waiting for the elevator to get to his floor. He activated Blood Detection for a slight instant and detected one red dot that was descending the building at a fast pace.

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    "7th floor, Apartment 73.", He judged as he saw the elevator''s door open. He had used Blood Detection so many times that his familiarity with the nearby resident could be said to be incredible. He could detect precisely detect them in the middle of a mob of thousands.

    Inside of the elevator was a young woman. Her constitution could be said to be extraordinary for a human based on Fell''s analysis. Even for a youth, her blood constitution made her one of the most interesting "subjects" he studied during the night.

    "Hello." He greeted with a nod as he entered the elevator. The young woman didn''t hear his voice as she had a pair of headphones on her head, but she saw his nod and mimicked Fell.

    As he eyed her physique, his eyes lit up as he couldn''t help himself but be surprised.

    "So this is what it meant, that fresh quality in the blood essence meant youth¡­", what interested him wasn''t the girl''s features. But the expression of her blood essence on her own body.

    "Blood is heavily influenced by genes¡­ But genes are also influenced and express themselves differently in accordance with each individual''s life" He assessed as he discreetly inspected her.

 Chapter 63 A Road To Battle Center

    A few seconds after he entered the elevator, the feeling of going down stopped and the elevator''s doors smoothly opened revealing the building''s hall. The woman nodded one last time in Fell''s direction before trotting at a fast pace.

    "Energetic", he exclaimed as he also left the elevator. He then left his apartment''s building and walked in the streets of New Casablanca''s rich district at a fast pace.

    As he walked through the still empty street, he would activate Blood Detection from time to time. Having already used it nonstop during the night, he grew accustomed to using it and could activate it instantly if needed. Every time he would use Blood Detection, he would swiftly analyze the most interesting blood essence he would meet in his way. He would then record his finding with the War Assist AI; Although he felt that using it to detect his surroundings as he felt it would affect his progress as a cultivator.

    He still decided to use it for other purposes, like the current one. He used the War Assist AI as a means to record his findings, he classified every single "type" of blood essence he found in his way. After roaming in the city for a few hours, his database kept increasing and soon he felt it became incredibly difficult to find other different blood essences. From finding one or two that were worth being added in the database every street, it soon turned into one in every five streets. Then, now it was hard for him to find one in every ten streets.

    He was tired from overusing blood detection. But feeling that it wouldn''t be worth it to stop so near from completion, feeling that he only lacked a few more before having enough research material.

    "This is taking far too long, I might collapse before having even reached half of what I need. I need a faster way¡­ much faster way to gather my resource material!", He thought out loud in a harsh voice. His figure was daunting to the extreme, he even scaring a frail salesman that was making his way out back to work from his lunch break.

    The poor man ran in a breakneck speed, afraid that he might be what the strange man needed.

    "I need a place with a lot of people. Yes! Only in large place will I find what I need."

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    As soon as he decided on his next course of action, he immediately applied it. Asking around him, he quickly learned that there was a place that was very frequented by the youth in New Casablanca''s. It was Battle Center, a place where Battle League was passionately played. Battle League was a battle arena game, very axed on competitive play. Being someone known in the game would immediately open the door of success, as several sponsors would rush right through your door to propose their contract.

    Doing a quick research on the net, he quickly saw several videos related to Battle League and gradually understood how it played.

    "Incredible," He thought as he saw the man move with lightning-like speed. "Their reaction time isn''t half bad", Fell was swiftly intrigued by the game and decided to try it. Even if it wouldn''t help in his research on Blood Detection, it would at least help him release some steam.

    After a few minutes of research, he managed to locate and arrived in front of Battle Center''s frontage. Contrary to what he thought, he was dumbfounded when he saw the gigantic construct. If the other skyscrapers could be said that their last few floors resembled a sword, then Battle Center went a step ahead and made it real.

    "How much did it cost them to build such a ridiculous sized sword¡­" He thought as he resumed his steps, as he was walking entering through Battle Center''s main door a strange thought passed through his mind. "Can it even be used as a weapon?".

    At the same time, a pearly voice entered his ear making him raise his head.

    "Welcome to Battle Center, I''m Talya a Battle Maiden and I will help you during your stay here." A young blond woman appeared in front of him, her blond hair moves lightly as she explained to Fell. Her voice, sweet and refreshing, left Fell a good impression.

 Chapter 64 Tutorial

    Tahlya was wearing a short blue dress similar to those that were found in a heroic fantasy world, she had a long white stocking that went from her feet to her knee. On top of her head was a strange crown, Fell found that the object resembled more a Valkyrie''s helmet than a crown. Her smile was refreshing and her blond hair, fine and silvery, moved slightly with the wind as she waited for Fell''s answer.

    "This young man is probably not a player.", she assessed as she saw Fell nod in her direction. "Young Master are you familiar with Battle League. If not, would you want an introduction?" Her pearly voice resounded in the hall.

    Around them were a few individuals, their necks turned as they heard Tahlya''s voice. Here in Battle Center, she was one of the most popular Battle Maiden around. Everyone liked her, especially the low rankers of New Casablanca as they could get the opportunity to choose a Battle Maiden to assist them in their life once they enter the higher tiers of the ranking system. Thus, Tahlya was the current number one choice of the low ranked player.

    "Battle League is an arena styled game, there are several modes. Be it alone or with a team, you have the chance to conquer and defeat a plethora of opponents. If I should pick a single word to describe this game, it should be competition!" She finished explaining in a single step. The Battle Center''s users stopped paying attention to Fell and Tahlya as they understood he was a complete newbie. They looked at him while scoffing, "that kid shouldn''t be worth her time", that was what most of them thought.

    "Do you want to try the tutorial?" She asked with a sweet smile on her face. As they walked, several eyes would keep following Tahlya''s figure.

    "Sure." Fell responded in a calm tone, he had noticed and understood that Tahlya was someone popular around the player base. But he wouldn''t care about their disdains, nor would he care about their mockery.

    They went through an elevator, stopping after going up a few floors. "This is the place where most new players begin their journey.", she left the elevator without waiting for Fell and kept explaining. "After the tutorial, you will be given a card that represents your ID in the game. Using this card, you can rent a room to play or buy items in the store that was on the first floor."

    "How many players are there?", he asked to judge the popularity of the game.

    "This game might not be well known in the city as this center just built last year. But Battle League has players all over the worlds."

    "Worlds? You mean I can even brawl against those mysterious race?" He speedily asked to confirm his understanding.

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    "Yes. We have Battle Centers all over the universe, although we might not be in every single civilization in our universe. We are at least present in the places that adhered to Heaven Ascension Court¡­ Don''t mind if you don''t recognize it as it isn''t a place you should know about." As she finished speaking, she looked at Fell straight in the eyes as if she was trying to dive into his soul.

    Fell''s left hand formed a fist that hit his right palm. This act made Tahlya doubt here eyes as she was sure that Fell wasn''t the type of guy who would know about Heaven Ascension Court. Unless¡­ He was a cultivator.

    She shook her head as it shouldn''t be possible, such a young cultivator wouldn''t be in such a low ranked city. At least, he might be from a noble family that might have told him too much. She thought as she resumed her steps.

    After a few seconds, they arrived in front of a door. She took out a blue crystal clear card and swiped it on the side of the door frame. Bip! A small sound escaped from the door as the card was accepted by the system.

    The door smoothly opened revealing it''s interior. The room wasn''t very big and it only contained a chair. Although the chair looked quite precious, Fell was quickly disappointed as he thought that it would at least be as luxurious as the rest.

    "Sit down on the Battle Link, create your ID and pass through the tutorial. This also serves as an assessment for the system, you will be noted based on several criteria. Good Luck!" She finished speaking in one go and left the room without looking back.

    "Thanks," Fell answered while lifting his hand.

 Chapter 65 Another World

    As she left the room with steady steps, Tahlya pressed a dial on a board that was left to the door, closing it with a single finger press.

    Fell turned around and began inspecting the room but he soon finished with a face filled with disappointment. The room was beyond empty, and he quickly made a tour of it. As Tahlya said, there was nothing except the mysterious chair in the middle of the room.

    He decided to inspect it before trying it. "Assist AI, analyze it''s component an try to summarize this machine''s function.

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    Blip!Blop!Blip! A series of electronic sound resounded in his ears. "Quite clich¨¦¡­" Fell thought while his AI made several lightning like computation.

    While he waited for it to finish, he decided to inspect his surroundings with blood detection. To his shock, his range was severely limited in the tutorial room. "How weird¡­", he thought while looking at the walls surrounding him.

    "I don''t even have a tenth of my normal detection range¡­", as he waited for the AI to do its job he tried to find a solution to the wall blocking his senses. But, it was to no avail. The only option he had found that worked was by applying blood detection is a straight line; Making it possible for him to check the tutorial rooms that were linked to his own.

    Bip! He heard the AI''s series of electronic beeps stop, and a robotic voice sounded in his head. "Research finished. According to the data I received and by comparing them to what I have access to. I can assure my host that this machine is a cerebral link."

    "Cerebral Link¡­", Fell pondered as he looked at the object. The AI resumed its speech, "It will use brain waves to translate your intent to the game. It is completely safe.", it finished succinctly before the voice blacked out.

    "The conditions aren''t great for blood detection to work. This is still a good experience as I might get some insights with this game!", he exclaimed before jumping toward the Cerebral Link that was in the center of the room.

    He sat on the large chair-like structure, took a deep breath and closed his eyes. The moment the machine sensed the weight that was on top of it. Deep intricate runic lines lit up on its outside structure, and Fell saw an interface appear in front of him.

    He opened his eyes and closed them again. "How peculiar¡­", he thought as he read the interface.

    "Welcome Fighter. To access the world of Battle League you need to choose an ID and create an Avatar."

    Fell thought about a random and mentally tried writing it. "Stroke, this should do as a name.", as he thought about the name it swiftly appeared in the interface.

    "About the avatar, I guess a slightly different version of how I look should do the job.", the interface followed his thought as it showed him a blond version of himself, his amber-colored eyes were turned green. And even if he could see the similarities, he was sure that no one could link the two of them.

    "This should do the job. Uhmm¡­ Tutorial start?"

    The dark around him disappeared, and his surroundings were washed white. He lifted his head and looked at the sky, it was blue; And he was left dumbfounded by the realism. He couldn''t make any difference between the two worlds as if his soul itself was taken to this virtual world.

    "The tutorial will start in a minute, get used to your body and choose a weapon. This tutorial is also an assessment and you will get graded according to your performance.

    Looking around him, he noticed a wooden rack filled with weapons. He picked a random one-handed sword and put around his waist, then he lightly jogged around to get used to his virtual body.

    "Not bad¡­ It''s actually similar to the body of a first realm cultivator, and not a bad one on top of that!" He exclaimed as he slowly got used to his in-game Avatar.

    "I guess this game''s first difficulty for the player is getting used to a strong body. The differences between their real body and their avatar would become a big wall for a lot of players. The higher their synchronization with the Avatar, the higher their damage output will become." He pondered while lightly bouncing on his feet, he moved his neck around and lightly shook his wrist to get used to his body.

    "Get Ready. Face the following wave, survive while clearing them." The interface reappeared declaring the beginning of the tutorial.

 Chapter 66 Fist Figh

    Not even a second after the interface appeared. A man popped out of nowhere, he dressed in a strange bronze-colored martial attire that Fell had never seen before. His face was blackened by a strange hazy shadow making his features hard to see. The man instantly took a martial stance in front of Fell and waited, inviting him to fight.

    Fell similarly took a fighting stance, his legs crouched low as his knees dropped down. His fists were facing straight toward the martial artist in front of him. Finishing regulating his breathing, he took a step forward and sent a fist in the direction to the martial artist''s chest.

    The martial artist swiftly responded by putting up a defensive stance, he tried redirecting Fell''s fist with an open palm. But his action was useless as Fell overpowered him with his strike; his fist tore through the martial artist''s defense like butter.

    A deafening sound was produced by Fell''s fist as it collapsed on the martial artist''s chest, sending him back a few steps away. The martial artist tried to recover from the blow, but the moment he lifted his head; Fell was already above him with his arm raised high toward the sky. Fell clenched his hand before sending it to smash down on the martial artist''s head. The strike broke the martial artist''s skull and nailed his head on the floor like a pike.

    An interface appeared in front of his eyes at the same time his blow hit the mark.

    "Congratulations on clearing the first wave. You have unlocked the Talent Tree. Think about it to open it."

    Fell executed the action and an unknown interface appeared in front of his sight. The interface wasn''t big as it had only a single line.

    "Hand to Hand combat mastery: ***** bronze star"

    As he asked himself what the stars meant, the answer appeared in front of his eyes.

    "Stars represent the mastery of your skills. Stars are ranged from bronze to diamond. 9 bronze stars are needed to evolve into 1 silver star". He finished reading and fell in deep thought.

    A few seconds after the first wave finished. An interface reappeared again representing the debut of the second wave.

    "Let''s see how much stars my hand to hand combat mastery is at!" He roared as he plunged toward the two opponents that just appeared. They wore the same bronze-colored cloth making Fell understand that they were at the same level.

    "Bronze martial attire means bronze level technique. Pretty simple!" He thought as he sent the martial artist that was on his left away with a roundhouse kick. The kick was vicious as it connected with the target''s neck, breaking it at the same time and disabling him from the fight.

    He then swiftly twisted his ankle in the opposite direction before snapping his leg upward toward the left opponent. Fell added strength to the blow by twisting his pelvis, and hit the left opponent straight in the chin.

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    The martial artist was sent straight toward the sky. He accelerated a few meters upward before falling toward the ground. Before he even had the time to hit the ground, Fell reversed his move. With a leg harder than steel, he kicked down stomping the martial artist to the ground.

    The interface reappeared, "Congratulation on clearing the second wave.", Fell excitedly looked at it, but his excitement died down as he had gained no reward.

    He swiftly thought about the talent tree and was surprised to find that his five bronze star had turned into seven bronze stars. Exhilarated by the sensation of progress, Fell''s nature took the best out of him. Quickly powering through, the second wave soon turned into the third, then the fifth; Half an hour later, he had already made his ways to the last wave. The tenth wave.

    "Guess that''s about all I can do here¡­", he thought as he began bullying the martial artist in front of him. As they kept doubling during each wave, he was currently facing 264 opponents at the same time. Although they were weak individually compared to him, but in a mob like this one. One single mistake and he would be overwhelmed by a ridiculous number of opponents.

    A smile appeared on his lips, kicking the ground he dashed forward with unparalleled momentum.

 Chapter 67 New Debu

    Fell plunged into the sea of martial artists in front of him. Outside of the tutorial room, Tahlya was patiently waiting for Fell to finish. At first, she thought he would be like everyone else; Beating the first wave was beyond easy, and the real difficulty would only show at the third wave.

    As Fell was clearing the wave at a breakneck pace, she thought that he was currently still in the fifth wave. She smiled brightly as she was satisfied by the fact that she found a talented newbie. "I should go speak with the manager, although not rare. There were only one or two individuals in such a situation every month."

    Tahlya went towards the direction of the elevator. She lightly trotted forward while softly whistling; every time she met someone on her road, she would politely nod while slightly bowing before continuing her way. She was always well known through Battle Center, but she was untouchable by all.

    A mysterious veil was plastered around her and her heart appeared to be surrounded by a thick wall; whoever courted her would just get a polite refusal or even the cold shoulder in some cases. As for those who tried to play with their might and force themselves on her, they disappeared overnight and became mysteries that garnished her untouchable aura.

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    She was well known in the battle center due to her beauty. A few of the higher-ups kept an eye on her as they knew of her special condition. However, what was even less known about her, was that she had a special relationship with one of New Casablanca''s top players.

    Battle Center was a major program made by one of the corporate firms from Heaven Ascension Court. Their main goal was to spread the passion of martial art; Battle Center''s first goal besides being a game was to train cultivators. The top players would be personally spotted by the corporate management and would be nurtured in top-grade facilities.

    Although this was still not very well known by the players, those who knew tried their very best to succeed in the game; it represented a very special opportunity for them. Thus the higher the tier, the bigger the difference between the players making Battle Center one of the most popular and competitive games. Battle Center represented the opportunity for all to begin their path of cultivation.

    Tahlya was aware of this fact. She also did whatever she could to create and keep a good relationship with everyone, in case one of them was a hidden late bloomer. Working here was an opportunity she acquired using her family''s connections, not making the most out of it wouldn''t be intelligent.

    She contacted her manager and told him about Fell. The manager was pleasantly surprised that a new talent was found in the Battle Center he managed. She sent him the tutorial room number to gather his data and made her way back to Fell.

    During this time, Fell was focused, body and mind, on the humongous mob of martial artists. Every time he made a move with his limbs, a bronze-colored figure would be sent flying away. He swam inside of the sea of martial artists like a fish in the sea. As he embraced the fight, he began swapping his hand form. Sometime it would be a knife, another time he would hit with his palm.

    His fingers turned into nails that pierced deep into his enemies'' flesh, and his fist was having an explosive might to it. The bronze-colored martial artists were far from posing a threat to Fell, he had not even used a single sword strike ever since the tutorial began.

    His real strength as a cultivator wasn''t his incredible body or his powerful energy. It was his sword-like will and his affinity with sword techniques. He wasn''t particularly talented in it, but the effort and passion he put in it made him attain small success in his practice.

    This could be even seen with his hand to hand combat which was slowly transforming. The number of martial artists around him lessened and his movements were acquiring a familiar quality: Sharpness.

    His fist pierced and his palm cut. His leg chopped with the might of an axe while his elbow cut through his opponent like butter. His Massin Martial Art was evolving again as it moved toward higher realms. At the same time inside the tutorial room, his muscles squirmed slightly as they went through subtle changes.

 Chapter 68 Changes

    A slow and silent transformation that was triggered by the Massin Martial Art was gradually changing Fell''s physique. As the number of martial artists facing Fell kept getting lower and lower; the sharpness in his moves was accented.

    Even the feeling he had when he used the knife form with his hand was strikingly similar to the one he had when he used a sword. His own body was starting to recognize itself as a bladed weapon; pleasure coursed through his body as he hacked down the last few bronze-colored figures left.

    His hand danced around him, phantom limb appeared around him as they shut down any nearby opponent. His feet skillfully trotted in the middle of the battlefield. His movements were erratic and defied logic from the point of view of his opponent. He would give the impression to dash forward while actually moving backward.

    Pa!Pa!Pa! His steps resounded on the silent battlefield as he advanced towards the last opponent of the wave. His hand moved towards his back as he prepared himself to slice the last bronze-colored martial artist. His hand was lifted high in the sky as if he was lifting a broadsword.

    He swiftly executed his attack the moment he entered the bronze figure''s range. The lifted hand descended toward his opponent with heavenly might; An invisible blade appeared in the virtual realm splitting the final martial artist of the tenth wave in two.

    An interface appeared in front of Fell accompanied by a congratulating tune. He lifted his eyes as he breathed out and looked at the floating words in front of him.

    "Congratulations on passing the tutorial." He read as he gradually recovered his breath.

    "Your grading for the tutorial is being calculated at the moment."

    "Your score is:100% clearance."

    "Congratulations." He smiled as he finished reading. "Not bad I guess! This game is quite fun." He exclaimed as he opened the talent tree interface.

    To his surprise, the bronze-colored martial stars disappeared. In their stead was a strange star that seemed to be made from the earlier bronze stars. The strange star repeatedly flashed in bright colors. Before starting the tenth wave, he had acquired nine bronze martial stars.

    He had learned before that each martial realm in Battle Contest was made of Nine Star. Thus, he was filled with anticipation as he thought about the changes that would occur after he completed the Bronze Realm with his hand to hand martial art.

    As he watched his new martial star form. A new interface appeared in a corner of his vision; He swiftly turned his neck to look at it as he was taken by a burning passion for the game. He had rarely enjoyed such luxury, having only tried a few ancient video games in the core.

    Although, back then, he found the experience novel and interesting, the games weren''t as immersive as this one. Thus, he didn''t have as much enjoyment as right now.

    He felt a strange mania take over him as he began reading the new interface.

    "Do you want to try clearing the phase II !" His eyes flashed with light as he began shaking due to excitation. The moment he finished reading, he exclaimed in a bright laugh. "Ahahaha, There is more!" His fist shook as he clenched them.

    "If there is more to hit, why wouldn''t I, Fell, beat them all!" He exclaimed with his back straight and a head that floated high above his shoulders. "Let''s do this!" he motivated himself while muttering; As he talked his finger moved and pressed on the windowed interface to start , the hidden phase II of the tutorial.

    The moment his finger touched the screen his surroundings drastically changed. The vast whiteness around him was morphing as if space and time were being dabbled with. The blue sky was flashing in a plethora of colors that left Fell smitten by the changes.

    The changes were happening instantly as If sever planes were passing through in a few moments. His surroundings morphed and dwarfed around him as If it was made in purpose to entertain Fell. Finally, his vision couldn''t take it anymore as he felt like he passed through ten thousand worlds in a single second. He closed his eyes and his eyebrows rose as he felt slight nausea from the ''journey'' he underwent.

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    A pleasant scent entered his nose, an image of heavenly valleys appeared in his mind and he immersed himself in this feeling. Suddenly he heard a voice that took him out of the reverie.

    "You really are talented. Quite a lot of genius end up throwing up during the large distance transportation. I''m not saying that what you experienced was a real one¡­", an old voice that appeared to be as ancient as time itself resounded in his ears.

 Chapter 69 Aiming For The Peaks

    Fell had just felt the laws of time and space for the first time. Although he was currently in a virtual game, the creators of Battle Center made the game as realistic as possible; A true-blooded simulation for cultivators to fight.

    He was still in a very confused state due to the long-distance instant transportation. He opened his eyes with difficulty as he felt a hot sensation hit his skin, it was coming from the sun. "Sunlight?", he thought as he finally opened his eyes and watched the view in front of his eyes.

    Thousands upon thousands of mountain peaks filled his view, a sea of clouds could be seen under them. He tried to count their numbers, but the computation would occupy a large capacity of his mental power. "Nearly innumerable¡­" He exclaimed as his eyebrows rose higher. As he lost himself in the view, he heard the old voice resound behind him.

    "You are right! But not completely, those mountains aren''t exactly infinite. Each mountain represents an individual in phase II!", the voice resounded around him.

    Hearing the voice again, Fell turned his neck around in search of its source; But it was to no avail as there was no one around him. He noticed that he was standing on a platform made of a multitude of squares, a combat platform.

    He coughed awkwardly while looking around him before opening his lips, "Who spoke? Is there a senior here?", he asked in a polite tone.

    "Senior¡­ You can consider me like that! No need to look around as you are standing on me!", the old voice turned ancient during an instant as it revealed that it was the mountain itself.

    Shock appeared on Fell''s face as he looked under his feet. He hurriedly exclaimed himself with a face filled with atonement, "Sorry, I''ve been stepping on senior''s body ever since I came here!".

    "Hahahaha!", a powerful laugh escaped from the ground below Fell. It spread far away and continued for a few breaths before dying. "You are an interesting fellow, aren''t you!", it paused in its speech before resuming. "Though it ain''t bad for young ones to be as polite as you! I''ll share a secret with you!"

    Fell''s eyes began glowing as he was taken by the mountain''s sweet words. "Conquer all those mountains and you will acquire something very precious!", as soon as it finished speaking the old voice disappeared.

    "Conquer? You mean defeat the individual on each mountain peak?", Fell pondered slightly before opening his lips.

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    "Yes. Whenever you feel like fighting you just need to say it and you will be given an opponent of your ranking. Losing three times in a row means the end of your participation in this tutorial. Additionally, to help you stay focused during , the Battle Center of your region has been notified. You will be given a very favorable treatment during your stay there. Train well young sapling, may the stars of fortune guide your success!"

    Fell pondered as he digested the information he had heard. "An opportunity!", his eyes glowed greedily for a second before dying out. "Thanks for the information senior! I hope our time together will last.", he finished the speech with a bow before sitting on the platform and closed his eyes to rest.

    Currently, in the Battle Center in New Casablanca, Tahlya had a shocked expression as she finished her phone call, it was the manager who called back right after their last exchange. What he had told her was the source of her surprise. The unknown new player she was attending had attained incredible results in the tutorial. Perfect grades, be it in the time he had taken to finish the tutorial or the damage he had taken during the tutorial.

    "How is it even possible! Don''t forget not to judge people based on their looks, Tahlya!", she told herself as she readjusted her clothes. Thankfully, although she didn''t have the time to create a positive impression on Fell, she was sure that she didn''t do the opposite.

    Fell''s success had left her with a strange aftertaste, reminding her of her brother. Her lips trembled slightly as she thought about the man''s figure in her memory. With a single leap of faith, he had managed to ascend and left Earth. He managed to get her this job to help her live. Though after that, he disappeared in his new life.

    Her fists clenched tightly as her closed eyelids vividly trembled due to her mental state. It took her a few seconds to take control of her mind. With deep breaths, she managed to calm down and relax. She then smiled and walked towards the tutorial room where Fell currently was.

 Chapter 70 Leading The Way

    "This is my opportunity!", she affirmed under her breath. Her steps stopped in front of the tutorial room where Fell was logged. She was given very precise instructions on how to deal with Fell, how to accommodate his stay in Battle Center; his meals would also be taken care of by her.

    "They gave me a maid''s job¡­", she thought as she sighed in front of the tutorial room. Her sight was plastered on the wall in front of her as if she could see him through it.

    Inside the room, Fell was still lying on the Battle Platform. His body was trembling in a minute degree, every fiber of his muscles were trembling and vibrating. However, his mind was in a different realm, as he was still logged in Battle Contest. He still felt the very minute sensation as his avatar in-game was also going through the current situation.

    Although his body was currently changing, it was his habits that were changing with each Massin Martial Art evolution. The way he would be standing would subtly change, any simple move of his limbs would contain the essence of his martial way.

    His body and mind were being nourished by his martial attainment and each breath he took would further help in his current advancement. If he had activated the talent tree inside Battle Contest, he would have noticed that martial stars were changing. In the middle of the bronze color, a silvery-white color was slowly being birthed inside of it.

    The colorful spiral rotated faster and faster. Each rotation seemed to add speed to the revolution of the stars, and as its speed grew it gradually grew smaller. Fell knew that a change was happening, that was why he immediately sat on the ground and began cultivating when he finished talking with the mountain.

    This was different from what happened when his Massin Martial Art assimilated the MechSuit weight, as it was an external source. The Massin Martial Art was currently assimilating Fell''s own sword technique. It being an internal source, no move or stances were needed as Fell only needed to visualize his sword movement for his body to vibrate and mimics the same result.

    His sword path was being absorbed by the Massin Martial Art and would be elevated to a higher degree. He felt himself standing in front of a bottleneck door ready to knock on it.

    "Massin Martial Art High Success. According to the manual, this is an extremely important path for a cultivator as it would his future martial path. Although it isn''t exactly understood Dao, it is practically the same as forming one''s own martial Dao!", he thought after finishing a breath.

    "But compared to the middle success, moving to a step of high success with the Massin Martial Art is said to be much longer as it wouldn''t happen in a single step. And the main problem with this breakthrough was that this step is different for each MMA practitioner, the difficulty was that starting from there, the manual would stop. Additionally, except for a single technique, the rest would only be on the user''s creativity."

    "That does explain why it began assimilating with my sword path by itself. The one created this art is a genius, its main goal is not to teach a path. But to show the way!"

    He opened his Battle Center Avatar''s eyes; the eyes glowed strangely as he decided that it was time to be proactive. With a flick of his forearm, he unsheathed the sword that was on his waist, a silver-colored one-handed sword was lightly clenched in his hand. His technique in the sword way had advanced to such a degree that the sword rested naturally in his hand, it was as if the sword was of his hand. A true extension of his limb.

    He flicked his wrist and the weapon disappeared. Only a thin line flickered in front of him, the sword could be only seen due to the sun''s reflection. If an opponent was in front of Fell, he would only see a soft flickering light in front of him. That would be only a few moments before being slashed by an elusive sword style.

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 Chapter 71 An Eclipsed Sword

    As his upper body was reproducing the elusive sword technique ''Moon Above'' he created, his limb moved in sync with his thoughts. Each sword move would be followed by a mental visualization. ''Moon Above'' was being dissected into several moves; every single step of ''Moon Above'' had a value. Usually, the slightest motion in his art would be used to redirect his energy to create the deadly intent of ''Moon Above''.

    However, now he was truly disassembling Moon Above and revising its execution. The ''Moon Above''s first version relied too much on the energy system, thus he needed to create a second version. Moon Above would be turned into a sword art that could be used by any sword user unrelated to the three cultivation systems he practiced.

    "This part is too imprecise; if the opponent isn''t baited by the first strike the whole following attack wouldn''t work." he delved deeply into his sword practice. Battle Contest was an opportunity for him to practice his swordsmanship without being hindered by his three cultivation systems. Here, there was no blood energy, soul energy wasn''t present and space energy couldn''t be sensed.

    Technique was all that mattered, and Fell would take the game''s system as an opportunity to prepare his future martial path. When it came to his cultivation, his foundation solid. But his sword arts lacked a solid foundation when they were compared to the geniuses in the universe. Although he had knocked on the door of laws through his sword, he didn''t have a foundation enough to make them grow.

    He needed to use the Massin Martial Art as a reference to revise his sword styles. Time passed slowly as Fell focused himself in his training. Although his mountain peak wasn''t particularly isolated from the other peaks, it gave a very peculiar feeling, a sense of loneliness spread from it.

    The image of a solitary youth in the middle of his sword practices gave the scene a calm vibe. Time seemed to stop as Fell lost track of his surroundings. He forgot that he was in Battle Center, forgot what he needed to do, forgot who he was.

    At this moment, Fell wasn''t anything more than a simple swordsman in the middle of his practice. His wrist flicked and the tip of his sword, elusive and obscure, followed suit.

    During this time, Tahlya had already left as she didn''t know when Fell would leave the room. She asked to be notified as soon as changes would happen. As for the mountain, it didn''t interact anymore with Fell; It was unknown if it was due to it noticing that the talented youth was training.

    Due to his effort, he finished revising ''Moon Above'' into a series of sword moves. Although it was still in its nascent form and lacked substance, it managed to reproduce the same coldness without any spatial energy.

    "This should be enough. Time to move to ''Sun Below''!", as soon as he judged ''Moon Above''s base was enough, his sword stance changed completely and the elusiveness and softness in his strokes disappeared.

    The moment his wrist flashed, his sword appeared in front of him. It revealed itself as clear as daylight and his swordplay aggressively flashed as he began practicing.

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    "''Sun Below'' is the complete opposite of Moon Above. Not only it mustn''t contain any softness, but its essence should also revolve around hard straightforward moves." He pondered as his arm unleashed strokes to confirm his theory. He would pause every time he executed a strike, he would then execute a slightly different stroke.

    "The logic is simple but it is as hard a Moon Above.", he paused a few seconds.

    This continued for an unknown period of time until he finally did the same with ''Sun Below''. Both sword techniques had been dissected and refined into completely new sword art. Fell shook from excitation as his chest rose with his newfound pride.

    "Now it''s time to feed them to the Massin Martial Art. My body has already been attuned to swords before I began reforming ''Moon Above'' and ''Sun Below''. Turning them into a swordless martial art should be much simpler."

    He immediately executed himself as soon as he decided on his future path. It was with a fierce determination that he began executing the Massin Martial Art while facing the ten thousand mountain peaks on the horizon. The sea of clouds rose higher and higher; It was as if it was cocooning Fell in the midst of his transformation. His MMA was akin to a larva going through a metamorphosis. Soon he would fly and reveal himself to the inhabitants of higher realms.

 Chapter 72 Ready for the brawl

    As soon as he began feeding his newly created sword arts to his MMA, changes began occurring inside of his talent tree. Had he opened this specific tab in Battle Center''s interface, he would have noticed that the evolution of his stars was taking yet another advancement.

    The silver in the middle of his martial star was gradually spreading to the edge and as if afraid from it, the bronze color in the star fled to the edge of the star.

    He had ample practice in phase I to develop an early form for his swordless martial art. Added to the fact that its origin was the Massin Martial Art, he didn''t encounter any difficulty in the process of fusing it with his sword arts.

    Fell used frenetic physical effort and doubled with his creative mental gymnastics. He executed the original Massin Martial Art that was taught to him by Anzar, his fists and legs moved in sync as they executed the deeply engrained form.

    His avatar''s muscles bulged and moved in a strange rhythm, his joints aligned themselves as he went from through the art''s several forms. His moves were sometimes slow yet seemed fast, and the opposite would happen in the following moves. Every movement was perfectly executed. If Anzar''s figure in Fell''s memory was superposed on him, there would be no difference. He finished the session with the last form and resumed without a pause.

    Only this time, sharpness equal to the one he had when he used his sword appeared when he executed the Massin Martial Art stances. He incorporated his different sword arts into each of the MMA''s multiple forms. He quickly ended one revolution of the Massin Martial Art Forms.

    He felt a tingling sensation in his limb every time his hand cut through the wind with ease. He felt as if any casual move from his limbs could cut through a wall. A beaming smile appeared on his face as he enjoyed the current practice.

    He felt himself progressing at a fast pace, he wanted to show those geniuses what he was worth. He wanted to prepare himself to the best of his abilities before facing them. He would engrain the name Stroke through their head. Although Fell wouldn''t be known, being recognized with Stroke''s altar didn''t change much to him. He would still reveal himself to the cultivation community.

    Time gradually passed and with each MMA''s forms revolution, he entered a deep battle state. His legs danced on the fighting ring, he would sometimes dash forward in a similar piercing motion of ''Sun Below''. Other times his movement technique would turn elusive and obscure. Although Fell was always good when it came to his running speed, he had always found that he was quite lacking when it came to his movement technique.

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    He only knew how to engage frontally and knew it would become a major flaw if he didn''t develop movement techniques. Thus, he used the opportunity to try developing a basic movement technique or two that would grow with his Massin Martial Art.

    "I will call them ''Solary Dive'' and ''Ghostly Stutter''!"

    Finally, his movement stopped and he quickly recovered his breathing. If he had done this training in the real world. He would have sweat buckets, but now inside Battle Center he felt as if he could keep up for days and days without feeling anything at all.

    He looked towards the other mountains peaks in the horizon and exclaimed himself loudly, his voice boomed in the empty ring.

    "Senior Mountain, Sorry to bother you, but how do I practice with the fellow martial artists that are in this phase."

    "Ho ho ho, you finally are ready. I thought you were going to keep training for an eternity! Ho ho ho¡­" The voice issued a joke before going on a laughing streak. Fell didn''t know how to react so he simply smiled politely and waited for the eccentric mountain to finish.

    It took it a few seconds before getting its focus back. Then it strangely coughed, before resuming its speech.

    "Stand in the middle of the Battle Center, I will activate the matchmaking system for you. Open your eyes to the other worlds, young one, and fight to your fill!

    "I will!" Fell exclaimed as his clenched fists shook from his excitation. He swiftly trotted towards the center of the fighting stage and patiently waited.

    "Ready?!" The old voice resounded in the ready. The humor in its voice was long gone, and Fell could sense the seriousness in its tone.

    "Always!" Fell responded with a confident smile on his face. He had done everything he could to attain the best condition possible. If there existed any monstrous genius out there, he would face him and show him who he was!

 Chapter 73 First Match

    As soon as he confirmed that he was ready, changes began happening on the platform he was standing on. At the same time, an interface appeared out of nowhere in front of him. Fell''s sight focused on it and he managed to read the two lines that were written on it.

    "The User ''Stroke'' has entered the matchmaking pool, you will be put against an opponent of your ranking."

    "Current Rank: 0W/ 0L"

    Before he even had the time to finish reading it, another interface popped on top of the other.

    "An opponent has been found! You will be transported in 3¡­2¡­!", Fell''s mouth opened in surprise. "Quite well made", this thought traversed his mind as the number 1 appeared on the interface.

    A blinding light appeared in front of the center of the ring that was in the solitary mountain peak. Fell''s figure disappeared from the place. His figure appeared on a familiar fighting ring, but this time the ring wasn''t placed on a mountain peak. The martial art ring was floating calmly in the middle of the sky, and the sun stood proudly on top of it.

    In front of Fell stood a humanoid figure. The man in front of him was part of the multiple humanoid species of the universe, he was wearing purple clothing and he resembled Earthlings. The only difference between them was that his skin was grey, and a third eye could be seen on his forehead.

    "Hello", Fell saluted his opponent politely with his fist resting on his other hand. He then assumed a martial stance and gathered his battle intent.

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    The purple clothed grey man nodded and mimicked his opponent. He then assumed his own fighting stance. His arms were raised in front of his chest, and his leg crouched low ready to pounce on his opponent.

    Both opponents cautiously watched each other, trying to find a weak point. As it was their first match in Battle Center, they didn''t want to lose due to a beginner''s mistake. A few seconds passed and no movement was made by the two men, it was as if their leg was deeply rooted to the ground.

    Finally, the man with grey skin decided that he had gathered enough information from his opponent''s pose and decided that it was time to attack.

    "I just need to applicate what I was thought in the clan! I need to reduce my opponent''s potential answer to my attacks. This is the sure way to win in a match!" As soon as he decided himself, Fell''s opponent''s third eye swiftly opened and flashed in a soft purple colored light.

    There was as much diverse life form in the universe as there were planets and realms. Having several limbs wasn''t something strange, it was the same for having more than two eyes. Having a third eye was just related to having a higher perception. The grey-skinned man was no different, his third eye was part of his species characteristic and due to it, he boasted a slightly higher perception than the average race. Making the spiritual laws of the universe easier to perceive and understand.

    Fell saw the man''s third eyes flash open, and in the next moment, he lost track of his opponent''s figure. The purple clothed man appeared half a step in front of Fell, on his hands were two sharp knives in the midst of descending toward his throat.

    "Quite the deadly toys!", Fell thought before crossing his arms in front of him. But the attack he expected didn''t happen; a cold sensation in his neck awakened an alarm in his mind and he immediately ducked in to evade the blow. The knifes cut through the air as they missed Fell''s back by a thin margin.

    "Fuck, Assassin type is the most troublesome to deal with¡­", his mind worked as his body moved. He turned around directly after evading the man''s blow, seriousness replaced his facial expression as he swiftly stepped in.

    His fist was sent straight toward the purple clothed man''s face. The man''s face, grey and deadly, didn''t have any expression marked on it. He looked at the fist approach him. Fell''s fist collided with his opponent''s face, but an odd sensation of emptiness was felt as he punched through his opponent''s head.

    "Crap! Another bait.", He thought as his legs kicked the ground to evade the stab that was traveling toward his lower back.

    "You want to play it like this, ugh!" Fell''s leg immediately kicked the ground, but no sound was heard during his hard stomp. Then, he swiftly disappeared from the ring. Ghostly Stutter was used by Fell soon after being created.

 Chapter 74 Ghostly Stutter

    His feet lightly brushed the ground in a rhythmic pattern. ''Ghostly Stutter'' was a movement technique that was more focused on the assassination arts. When executing this art, his movement would become similar to his soft swordplay. Unpredictability was the main focus of this technique, making the opponent doubt your future movement was all that mattered.

    Although speed wasn''t Ghostly Stutter''s specialty. Fell disappeared from the purple clothed man''s view as soon as he executed the technique. Not even half a breath after, he disappeared from the fighting ring. He reappeared behind the man, his hand formed a knife form and it directly descended toward his opponent''s neck. The blow cut through the air with lightning-like speed and was aimed straight at the opponent''s neck. A single hit would be enough to end the fight with a broken spine.

    But the purple clothed martial artist didn''t stay where he was and swiftly evaded Fell''s blow. The scene repeated itself several times, where Fell and the purple clothed man kept trying to burst the opponent with a surprise attack.

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    The battle soon turned into a battle of baits and wits. Both opponents could end the fight in a single blow, thus making the current battle hard on their minds. Each step had its importance as both opponents'' win conditions were the same.

    Their moves, ephemeral and slippery, were being executed one after the other. Their feet would glide on the ground forward before defying the laws of physics and changes direction. His opponent was particularly talented when it came to his assassination''s art, giving Fell a plethora of new options to add to his ''Ghostly Stutter''.

    Under this special state, the fight was stalled as both opponents kept using the same type of technique, but it was to avail as they kept countering each other. Fell was especially happy under this circumstance, as his opponent kept showing him incredible movement techniques.

    "Incredible, who would have thought that it was possible to evade this blow like this!", Fell exclaimed in his mind as he saw his opponent evade his attack by letting himself drop to the ground in the last moment. Then the purple clothed man rebounded on the ground as if his back was made from springs. It was then that a change happened to his facial expression. Since the beginning of the fight, it had stayed expressionless. But now, Fell could swear that he saw the man smirk lightly for a second.

    He didn''t know if the other man was also enjoying their fights. But his opponent''s next move solidified his thought as he dashed in a strange straightforward way toward Fell. He dropped all of the elusiveness back and quickly reached his top speed.

    In the blink of an eye, he appeared in front of Fell and his upper limbs flickered. A barrage of knife blows was swiftly executed by the purple clothed martial artist and was aimed toward several points on Fell''s body. The onslaught of knife strokes weren''t just random stabs, each blow had a varying angle and a specific purpose.

    "You''re finally revealing yourself!", Fell thought as his hand moves. Slapping several attacks that were aimed for his weak points in his form, he swiftly understood the danger of his opponent''s straightforward tactics.

    "Although he is making this look like a frontal attack, he is waiting for me to get absorbed by his rhythm!", He thought as he took a step back while swatting a blow that was aimed at his heart. "Terrifying! If he had used this tactic from the very beginning, I might have fallen for it! But now that I know what you are looking for, this is easy!"

    Taking a step forward, he mimicked his opponent and unleashed dozens of attacks with his four limbs. If his opponent had only his two knives as a lethal way of attacking, Fell''s martial art gave him the same effect as turning his limbs into weapons. His fingers, his joints, every extremity of his body that could applicate power were used during his attack.

    Although Fell wasn''t as good as the purple clothed man when it comes to his ability to bait and fake his actions. He did have his own ways to finish the fight without using his sword. What he was doing now was waiting for his opponent to reveal his technique''s true fang. He would play along with him while waiting for the moment where he would counter his opponent''s real attack.

 Chapter 75 Like an Open Book

    Two figures exchanged moves in the middle of a floating ring. Power, speed, precision, nothing was lacking in the moves they executed. The fight moved from a burst focused art, creating the best opportunity to deal a fatal blow to your opponent was both Fell and the purple clothed man''s tactics.

    But now, both opponents were at attacking range. Their limbs snapped as they unleashed dozens of blows every second; The fast-paced pugilistic fight created a dangerous situation where the match could end in any second.

    The pressure peaked as the purple clothed martial artist jabbed twice with his left hand. The dagger in his hand cut through the air one time, Fell easily evaded the blow that was aimed at his throat. Then came the second jab that was aimed at the same spot.

    "Right now!", Fell screamed in his mind. "This is the moment both of us have been waiting!", his hand moved to parry the second hit. Suddenly, the purple martial artist''s hand motion completely stopped. A smirk appeared on the grey skinned man''s face, his bait had worked and Fell couldn''t stop his current movement anymore.

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    "Like I thought!", he kept his motion going as if the following action of the purple clothed man were unknown to him. Time seemed to stop in Fell''s view as he watched the purple clothed man''s right hand sneakily cut through the air in the direction of his carotid. The angle was perfect and Fell shouldn''t have been able to react to it if he hadn''t read through his opponent''s mind.

    He saw the knife dangerously approach his throat. He patiently waited while playing dumb for the perfect frame of action. Suddenly, a change appeared in the facial expression of his opponent. Shock was plastered all over his expressionless face as he saw Fell''s current motion stop. A deadly sensation traversed his mind as he felt that he had fallen in a trap. But his attack had already been sent and even if he managed to stop it; He would face a backlash that would leave him wide open for counterattack.

    Thus, he immediately acted and tried to shift his weight to change the trajectory of his blow. But it was to no avail as Fell had already begun moving; The trap slowly closed itself on the purple martial artist. Fell reversed his earlier motion, grabbing the purple clothed man''s hand in the movement.

    "Now I caught you!", He exclaimed while shifting gears. His ankles rotated in a perfect circular motion, then his other joints followed suit. His opponent felt dread as he felt his leg quit the floor; his forearm moved in a strange pattern trying to slip out of his lock. But the youth''s hand was clenched with such might that he doubted he could get out even with his clan''s technique.

    "Eat this!"

    Fell swiftly executed a throwing technique; His opponent''s leg quit the ground with his head facing the ground. Panic washed over Fell''s opponent''s mind as he tried his best to get out of the situation.

    During the movement, his own body''s energy that was formed by moving his joints in sync was transmitted to his opponent during the throw. In the last moment of his throw, his muscles bulged as he added his own strength to the mix before releasing the purple clothed martial artist with head first toward the ground.

    Boom! A deafening sound spread around the floating ring and dust was sent high in the empty sky. It took a few second before the dust was cleared away by the wind revealing the fight''s result.

    Fell was standing on the ground while patting his hand. Close to him was the purple clothed man, only his condition wasn''t the best. His head was plunged deep in the ground, and his neck couldn''t even be seen anymore.

    "That was quite the close fight buddy.", Fell exclaimed while turning around. He was unaware if his opponent had heard him, but he decided to share his feeling nonetheless, he had fully enjoyed the fight as his still trembling limbs showed his excitation.

    "Thanks for the interesting techniques!", He said while trying to relax his tense muscles. Suddenly, an interface popped in front of him; He massaged his forearm as he began reading.

    "Stroke have defeated Arhash. Your current score is 1 Win/ 0 Loss!"

    As soon as he ended reading Battle Center''s system notification, he saw the purple clothed martial artist''s body flashed with multiple lights before disappearing. Fell''s neck moved downward, and he saw that the same phenomenon was happing to him.

    The ticking light flashed a few times before both opponents disappeared from the floating ring, silence prevailed on the floating platform as it waited for its next occupant.

 Chapter 76 Virtual Biomes

    The instant he disappeared from the floating platform where he had fought the purple clothed man, he appeared on his mountains peak with his body flashing with a blinding light one last time.

    He breathed out as his nerves were still jumping around due to his earlier fight. He sat on the solitary ring and began exercising his breath. His chest rose high towards the sky and his diaphragm contracted, helping the inhalation. Then the air in his chest was emptied with his worries, he quickly attained a calm state. It was at this moment that he heard a soft whispering.

    "Oh, you''re back¡­ How was your first fight with the other genius?", the old archaic voice of the mountain resounded in his ears. He opened his eyes and exclaimed in a bright tone.

    "Very interesting! One fight wasn''t enough for today.", As he spoke, he exerted pressure on his knee and swiftly got up. He approached the center of the stage, and as his feet touched the surface of the transportation area he added, "Sent me back there senior!"

    "Hahahaha", The mountains'' laugh resounded in their surroundings. It was loud beyond logic and he felt as if his surroundings were facing an Earthquake. "Go on, young one. Absorb all those techniques and turn into a grand tree that will shoulder your planet¡­ Or maybe even the universe." It added with a serious tone before joking at the end.

    The next moment after it finished speaking, Fell felt a soft light appear around his body. A flash of light later, the mountain was empty again. The wind softly blew on the virtual earthly peaks as it accompanied the mountain in its solitary life.

    As Fell appeared in another fighting platform, his sight crossed the familiar square-shaped slabs that composed the ring. He had noticed that all of the platforms that were made for battles were the same one, the only things that changed were the backgrounds. His first time had been done in the middle of the sky, he remembered the sensation of the wind softly brushing his skin.

    Only this time, as he looked around him. Surprise appeared on his face as his sight was focused on his surroundings. In his views, everything around him was a clear indigo blue; as if he was in a giant water tank. He moved his arm briefly and confirmed what his eyes saw, there was a strange viscosity to the air around him.

    "Is this¡­ Water?", He thought as he lightly moved his hand in the air around him. "It truly has the density of a liquid, how marvelous!"

    He was so bemused by his surroundings that his senses were completely oblivious to his opponent. A few moments after he appeared, a strange cough took him back to his senses. He remembered that he was supposed to face and fight an opponent, his sight quickly focused on the man standing in front of him.

    The man had a polite smile on his face, and he waved his hand towards Fell in a friendly manner.

    "I had the same reaction the first time.", his voice perfectly traveled in the liquid before entering Fell''s ears. "The air around us has a density approximatively equal to the density of water. This type of biome is made to mimic the atmosphere of certain planets.", he fluently explained while moving his hand, showing the special property of this place.

    "Oh! Thanks for the information my good brother.", Fell responded with an honest smile on his face. He had never thought that he would get the opportunity to live such a novel experience inside a game. The more he played Battle Center, the more he was sure that the one who made this game wanted to nurture potential geniuses in the way of fighting.

    "Although this is your first time in a biome of this type.", The youth in front of Fell had facial features similar to Earthlings, the only distinctive features he had managed to demarcate were his pointed ears that were similar to elves in the fantasy novel that were written on Earth. His incisors were also longer and sharper than a normal human''s, they appeared whenever he talked or smiled. "I won''t go easy on you. Prepare yourself, my name is Ainqi Baa!", he introduced himself before assuming a fighting stance.

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    His hand moved towards the ground, and his knee dropped low. Fell eyed his opponent in surprise as he saw the man keep going lower until his hand touched the ground. He was surprised by his opponent''s stance, and his mind was quickly intrigued by its mysteries.

 Chapter 77 Vicious Brawl

    Although he was surprised, it didn''t mean he forgot his etiquette as a martial artist. His core contracted as he followed his opponent in his style. His knee dropped toward the ground as his arms were raised in front of his torso.

    "Oh! Here I come!", Ainqi Baa howled before dashing forward. He swiftly closed the gap between Fell and him in a few movements of his limbs. His leg and arms moved in sync as he rushed with four limbs on the ground. Fell was surprised again as he had never seen someone run so fast on four limbs. He wasn''t just mimicking an animal in the midst of a dash, Ainqi Baa''s grounded dash released a strange vibe that made Fell''s heart skip a beat.

    "He truly isn''t going easy¡­ I even feel that he is on a hunt.", He swiftly thought as he clenched his fist. "Waiting for would give him all the advantage. I need to get closer to reduce his momentum!", his legs smashed the ground under him, and he sent himself forward with a striking momentum. His body quickly attained top speed as he cut through the viscous air around him.

    Under the two opponents'' breakneck speed, the distance between them was crossed in the blink of an eye. Not even a second after the fight''s start, they entered their respective striking range.

    "Just like I thought! We are the same Hahahahaha!", He howled as excitation traversed his body. Now that they were at close range, he could see that the youth in front of him wasn''t like the others. He was used to the opponent being defensive in front of his aggressive martial art, some even fled right after seeing him cross the ring in four limbs.

    But this was one of the rare cases where his opponent went forward to meet his attack. Not only wasn''t the blond youth in front of him afraid of his frontal assault, he was even excited by it and went forward to meet him; This was also shown by the large smile that was plastered over Fell''s face.

    "Let''s enjoy this to the fullest!", He howled in a loud tone. Ainqi Baa formed a claw with his hand and sent it toward Fell''s heart, his attacks were as vicious as his barks. His hand traversed the viscous air with no difficulty before appearing a few centimeters in front of Fell''s chest.

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    Fell completely ignored the attack and kept going forward. His hand straightened forming a knife stance, and his shoulder''s muscles moved backwards. His muscles acted like strings as power kept being generated during this short period. Then, all of it was released and sent straight towards his opponent''s solar plexus. Fell''s arm pierced through the water with the might of a spear, his arm wobbled lightly under the extreme speed it had attained giving the impression that it was a flood dragon.

    If his opponent wanted to end this in one exchange, Fell would gladly follow his steps. That was why he had ignored his attack, although he would be forced to eat all the damage. His opponent would also be in the same situation.

    "Hahahaha! What a crazy lad, My sense of smell has never lied to me! Come, let''s enjoy this to the fullest!", Ainqi Baa felt goosebumps as he felt that the time around them slowed down. His claw-like hand was infinitely close to touching Fell''s skin, he felt that he only needed to poke a little bit and he would acquire victory. But it was the same for Fell''s spear-like arm that was aimed at his diaphragm, the danger he felt from it sent his senses in shambles.

    Under the extreme pressure both opponents had put each other under, time came to stop right before the impact while their mind ran at maximum focus. Under this shade of indigo blue water, a large amount of blood splashed everywhere as both opponents collided into each other.

    Time seems to take back its property as the amount of blood kept growing. it gathered as it formed a screen that blocked sight around the two fighters. In the middle of the fighting ring, a blood flower grew from the center of their collision. It rose proudly toward the sky while softly floating inside the viscous air.

 Chapter 78 Nascent Friendship

    When it came to martial arts, there was a simple principle that was shared through all the different art practitioners. Never trade blows with a mad man that only cared about attacking while ignoring defense. It was just common sense. Why would you fight against someone who doesn''t hold his own life dear? Someone who would be as vicious with himself than with his enemies. This kind of people were to be avoided at any cost.

    Fell and Ainqi Baa could be considered to be the same kind of character. They would go through any process to defeat their enemies. If they have to lose a limb through the process, then so be it. They would make sure the opponent loses two limbs. This wasn''t any complicated battle tactic, but it was shown several times through history that it worked. The only major drawback was that this method could end up killing its own user.

    Inside of Battle Contest, the result could be easily seen as the spot where their assaults connected was basked in blood. Due to the strangeness of the biome they were fighting in, the blood didn''t splash on the ground but instead kept twirling with the windy current.

    Gradually, the blood dots flew flashed as the sun''s light reflected on them. They slowly rose toward the sky as the view around Fell and Ainqi Baa was cleared. As the two opponent''s figures began appearing, a pained cough chased away the silence.

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    "You really¡­ are quite the bas¡­", the pained voice coughed a few more times before spiting a blood clot from his throat. "Bastard¡­ You twisted your waist before the impact, right?", as it finished speaking all of the blood around them flew away clearing the view completely. The person who was speaking was Ainqi Baa, his face seemed to be empty from blood as its color was closer to a pale transparent white.

    His breathing was shallow and every time he inhaled a painful gasp would flee from his lips. He was trembling like a kite. His knees repeatedly trembled, showing that he was close to falling apart. The source of his injury could be seen in the close to his navel, and a bloodied hand was trembling while pressing on it. Fell''s spear-like attack had left massive damage to Ainqi Baa, destroying his diaphragm in one go. If they weren''t currently inside Battle Center, Fell was sure that Ainqi Baa would have died a few moments after receiving the blow.

    Although they were in a game, they weren''t relieved from feeling pain as it was shown from their facial expressions. In front of the pained Ainqi, Fell could be seen sitting on the ground. He breathed quickly while gasping for air, and a deep long gash could be seen traveling from his chest to his ribs. The injury was so severe that the bones could be seen, but except a slight tremble that occurred when he inhaled no other sign of pain was on his face. Even if it was in real life, although it would be painful, Fell''s current injury wouldn''t be life-threatening.

    "Fuck¡­ This game is way too real.", He exclaimed while responding to Ainqi Baa. "I guess this is my win!", he tilted his neck to the left and spat a mouthful of blood.

    "Win my ass, this is the first time I''ve lost so fast. I can''t accept this, Let''s fight again!", Ainqi Baa barked again. A change appeared on the pained expression that was plastered on his face, battle intent was reignited as he tried to get up.

    But his trembling legs abandoned him. His body dropped to the ground while his face ate the floor.

    "Hahaha, yeah try to fight me like this. By the way, how do I get my Avatar to a normal condition?", He asked while looking down at the long injury that traveled on his chest.

    A muffled response came from Ainqi Baa, but it didn''t enter Fell''s ear. "What did you say? Stop Faking your death and answer me.", Fell''s tone was as provocative as it could get. But hidden in it was friendliness, although the fight was short. Ainqi Baa had gained Fell''s respect due to his fighting style. His animal form martial art had left a deep impression on his mind.

    "Who''s dead! Fucking brat¡­", His eyes reddened from anger as he eyed the blond-haired youth in front of him. If it wasn''t for that bastard avoiding the lethal part of his attack, he would have easily won the fight. But reality had shown him the harsh truth.

 Chapter 79 Five Matchess Reward

    Fights could be won due to a simple minute motion. "What your avatar''s name?", Ainqi Baa asked while gritting his sharp teeth.

    "Stroke.", Fell responded in surprise. A few seconds after he answered Ainqi, he heard the now familiar system''s sound and a window appeared in front of him.

    ''The user Paw has sent you an invitation to join his friend list, do you accept?''

    His eyes crossed the word in front of him, and he accepted the proposal without a second thought.

    "I''ll be back with a new technique! Wait for me.", the moment he finished speaking dots of light appeared on his body. And a few flashes later, silence prevailed on the fighting platform as both of them had been transported to their mountain peaks.

    Fell reappeared on his now-familiar mountain peak. His body was no longer riddled with the large injury that was on his chest. The pain was also gone as his avatar had been healed. He didn''t take a step outside of the transportation area as he felt that he didn''t have his fill yet. He tilted his head to the side in search for the senior in the mountains before coughing in embarrassment.

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    "Hmm¡­ senior. Can you send me back there!?", his eyes glowed as his fight with Ainqi had awakened a strange thirst for battle. His savage battle with Ainqi had made his brain release thousands of chemicals, and like a battle addict, he was crazily hoping for another fix.

    "Ho ho ho, how can I refuse if you ask so politely! By the way, you should stop at your fifth fight."

    "Why¡­?", Fell asked while doubting what he heard. "Why should I stop when I''m just starting to have fun."

    "Because starting the fifth match your ranking will be decided, and you will be given rewards depending on your win rate.", it then paused in the middle of its explanation before continuing. "Basically, starting from the sixth match. The power level of your opponent will augment drastically due to them receiving their rewards!"

    "Oh! What happens if I win all five matches?", Fell asked as a soft light appeared in his eyes. His greed was awakened as he waited for Senior Mountain to answer him.

    "Ho ho ho, looks like you''ve had quite the success earlier. But, be aware that the opponent you will face will be of your ranking. Which means that you will now face someone who has also won his first two matches in this phase of the tutorial.", Senior Mountain''s old voice entered Fell''s ear causing him to shiver from excitement.

    "Stronger opponents¡­ Better rewards¡­", He repeated after hearing the mountain''s explanation. His breathing accelerated as he kept repeating the same sentence. His eyes glowed from greed; droplets of saliva could be heard hitting the ground. He was dazed for a few moments before wiping his lips, wiping his saliva seemed to have the same effect as wiping his shame away.

    "Send me now Senior!", His voice boomed from his mouth. He nearly screamed on top of his lungs but managed to slightly control himself as he urged Senior Mountain to send him.

    "Ho ho ho, go young one. You have been waiting for too long, fight to your fill. Use them as your stepping stones! The universe is vast, young one, but our time is counted!"

    Fell nodded as he heard the Senior''s teaching. He exercised his breath to calm himself, then went away for the third time of the day. His body flashed with a blinding light, and he disappeared from the solitary mountains.

    His avatar appeared on another fighting platform. As he had expected that it might be another special environment, his neck tilted to his sides as he searched for the platform subtleties. But before he even had the time to gather any information, his senses sent him a clear warning.

    His sight focused in front of him, and he swiftly understood what was causing him to feel danger. The more he saw the person he was going to face, the more he felt intimidated. It was a strange sensation he didn''t feel ever since his encounter with Anzar.

    A few meters in front of him stood a towering giant, he was easily twice as big as Fell and two pairs of bulky arms were crossed in front of him.

 Chapter 80 David Versus Goliath

    Fell glanced at the giant in front of him and looked at the large man''s hips, noticing that there were four scabbards. Judging from the size, the swords that they sheltered was proportional to the wielder. The first thought that popped in Fell''s mind when he saw the fierce weapon was that it was a spear.

    A serious expression appeared on his face and it was with a composed mind that he began approaching his opponent. The giant didn''t move a single inch while Fell walked toward him, his eyes gazed quietly at fell. A chilling light resided in the middle of his pupil, and this soft light gave his willow colored eyes a strange vibe.

    Fell''s heart pounded in his chest, but he began taking control of his disturbed senses as soon as the apprehension appeared in his mind.

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    "Since when I have ever been afraid of anyone!", He thought as he forgot about the times he had to crawl for survival in the Core.

    He had grown a lot ever since he left the core. Not the forget that he had orchestrated a savage bloodbath on the DarkSun Gang, he wasn''t a stranger to killing himself. Thus, the hidden killing intent that was all over the giant swordsman didn''t break his will. It was the opposite; his senses were shaking from excitement.

    Although the past two matches hadn''t been easy, he didn''t use his sword and had only used his new swordless martial technique. His sword has been honed to the upmost of what he could attain. If he wanted to progress now. He either needed an epiphany or a master. The only other possible way was a breakthrough due to pressure on the battlefield.

    In the end, the way of the sword was closely related to wars and slaughters. He didn''t have access to a battlefield close by, but Battle Center would serve him plenty of stressful events such as the current one.

    He stopped in front of the giant and grabbed the scabbard that was strapped on his hip. His hand was tightly wrapped around the sword''s pommel and the sword began lightly humming inside of its scabbard. The next moment, his arm flashed, and the sword was taken out of its scabbard in a swift motion. The scabbard flew towards the ground before embedding itself deeply in the fighting platform.

    No words were spoken between the two undefeated Battle Center beginners as Fell had already introduced himself the moment he drew his blade. The giant''s four upper limbs moved in sync towards his four spear-like weapons. The next moment, four long swords the length of spears were tightly clenched by his thick hands. They were both ready to begin their special dialog; strokes and slashes as their words.

    Fell initiated the dance, he stepped forward in a flashing stutter and his sword hand blinked. His sword cut through the air as his wrist moved, making the trajectory of his blow harder to read. The moment Fell moved to attack, the giant''s hand moved as well following closely behind him.

    Their swords connected and sparks were produced during that short frame. Fell immediately unleashed a dozen of other sword strokes, their speed made them hard to see for the naked eye. But the giant swordsman didn''t seem to have any trouble in following their trajectory.

    Two of his hands flashed in a blinking motion and Fell''s attacks were swiftly parried.

    "I guess basic sword techniques won''t get me anywhere. But they can help me assess the giant''s level in the way of the sword.", As he analyzed his opponent''s option, he threw dozens of sword attacks. Every single sword move he had learned in Gladiator''s Heaven was being unleashed. An upward short slice would be followed by a deep piercing forward lunge. He would sometime try to bait his opponent by mixing up one-handed sword techniques with two-handed, but the giant''s defense was top tier and he didn''t get any decent result doing so.

    "Just like I thought. The fact that he has more weapons and a larger range will make this hard for me. But a bigger range also means less speed as the sword needed to travel towards the opponent before going back to defend the owner.", His sword moved as he began forming a tactic in his mind. His leg kicked the ground making him avoid a blow that was going to his direction, then his feet softly brushed around the ground as he seemed to glide around his opponent.

 Chapter 81 David Versus Goliath Part II

    "No flaws, his four limbs have completely shut down the natural flaws that a long-range have.", He ducked to avoid two sword slices that were aimed at his neck. "And even if he didn''t have four limbs, his own speed is more than enough to cover his long-range shortcoming."

    "In the end, there is no definite advantage and everything will be decided right here!", as he confirmed his belief, his sword flew forward. Its speed broke through its past peak and sparks began appearing around the sword. It began heating under its motion''s incredible speed. It swiftly cut through the space between Fell and the giant swordsman before appearing right in front of him. The big man didn''t sweat in front of the lightning-fast move, and his four swords rotated circularly.

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    The first sword, grasped by his lower left arm, connected with Fell''s sword and slightly dissipated its kinetic energy. Then, Pa!Pa!Pa; Sounds of steel hitting steel spread all around the fighting ring as his three other swords followed suit and redirected Fell''s blow to the left.

    During this slight moment of imbalance, the giant swordsman''s limbs flashed in the blink of an eye. His swords were sheathed back inside of their scabbards in a single instant. Time seemed to stop as power was stored in the bladed weapon. A deadly sensation appeared all over Fell''s body. He knew that the situation he was in was dangerous as he even felt lines appear on his body before the giant''s even finished unleashing his blows.

    The four swords flew out of their scabbard in sync, they instantly cut through space in the direction of Fell. Fell didn''t even have the time to blink before the cutting edge of the swords appeared in front of his body. His mind awakened under the pressure and began working at full power, his eyes darted left and right as he calculated the way to avoid the deadly situation.

    Time ticked slowly as the angles from where he could evade the blow were reduced by the swords'' advancement. Under the intense pressure, his mind worked towards survival. Right before the four swords could block all of the paths available, his torso bent in a strange way and he managed to slide to the left. Then his leg hit the ground, sending his body upward making him evade the second sword cut by an inch. Slash! Four large lines could be seen on the fighting stage behind Fell.

    But not a single mark could be seen on Fell''s body as he managed to evade the dangerous situation. Slipping right through an impossible angle in the giant''s attack.

    He breathed out and smiled toward his opponent. And finally, a reaction appeared on the giant''s face as a simple and honest smile was returned to Fell. No words were spoken as their moves talked instead of their lips. Both of their heads dropped down in a nod before their legs stepped on the floor.

    The ground shook under the weight of the tremendous strength they both used, and in a single moment, they exchanged several blows. Fell managed to keep the giant in check due to his high movement speed added to his fast yet heavy sword style. Everything the giant did to counter Fell by reducing his evasive options, Fell would twist his body in a heaven-defying position to save himself.

    And like this, time advanced as the fight entered a new phase where both opponents gradually got used to each other. Knowing that Fell was particularly good with his evasive abilities, the giant focused on the angle of his blows. Every time Fell thought that he had seen everything the giant could show; the large man would surprise him with several strokes that defied common sense.

    It wasn''t only the angle of his sword strikes that changed, but even their speeds. The pattern of their crisscrossing and even the timing of his move''s execution. Everything would be tuned down to a minute degree in the hope of catching Fell unguarded.

    But Fell''s senses couldn''t be discarded as he began progressing toward higher heights. Every time he succeeded in evading death, he would grow up and Ghostly Stutter would be nourished by his discoveries. New ways of dodging the giant man''s blows were constantly being produced by his brain. Exhilaration took upon him as he lost himself in the blissful battle. He was fully enjoying his fight with the giant, dancing with death in every single step he took.

    Back at reality, Inside of New Casablanca''s Battle Center where Fell currently stayed, Tahlya could be seen walking inside of an empty room. She grumbled as she stepped heavily on the floor to empty her hearth.

 Chapter 82 David Versus Goliath Part III

    "That bastard. Why isn''t he taking any freaking rest after his fights!", She mumbled as she breathed heavily. "Being talented and managing to enter the tutorial''s phase II is already incredible by itself. But now that I learned he is planning on ending all of his first five matches in a row¡­ Urghhh!" She growled at the end under her frustration. "Such waste, such waste¡­". Thankfully, no one was around here, or else they would have been surprised by her current features. Under her anger, none of her past tenderness could be seen and only fiery anger could be felt from her.

    Tahlya had been excited to learn that the newbie that was under her jurisdiction had managed to enter the phase II tutorial, . It should have been a grand opportunity where she was supposed to be his counselor, he was supposed to take it step by step and rest after each fight as every single one of them counted.

    But here he was, passing through them as if they were bar brawls. She sighed as she sat on a sofa, her chest heaved up and down and after a few minutes, she finally managed to calm down.

    "At least he managed to win his first two matches. It will still somehow acquire him a decent prize but starting now I doubt he will keep winning.", Pity appeared on her face as she thought that such a precious opportunity was being wasted. Even such a simple expression was magnified by her facial feature as she seemed to turn into a praying goddess.

    "Let''s hope that he learns his mistake after losing, he might redeem himself and train hard.", she thought while sighing as she was the one who made the mistake. "People train for months just for those five first matches, truly a waste of talent¡­".

    wasn''t any simple phase. It took years for a Battle Center''s user to get out of it, and that was in case the user wanted to quit his progress there. was a treasure trove to any aspirant cultivators. It was supposed to be similar to heaven''s steps, helping them ascend to godhood.

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    Little did she know that Fell had already begun treading on the path of immortality before entering Battle Center''s office in New Casablanca. Although it did represent an opportunity to him, he was more interested in the fighting part. And it wasn''t like he ignored his training when he was in Battle Center.

    Each fight was fully used to learn everything he could from his opponents. His first fight with the purple clothed man could have been ended much earlier if he had decided to draw his sword. It was the same for his second fight. Fighting Ainqi Baa had been a much shorter experience. But it wasn''t lacking in intensity, having made Fell aware of being vicious to oneself to win.

    Now, his third fight''s main goal wasn''t just for the sake of winning. He was tempering all of his sword techniques, starting from the simple Earthly sword technique to his own self-made art. He used the giant''s overpowering defense to sharpen his own attack. And although he was facing danger at every corner, the reward was worth much more than the potential loss. Fell wouldn''t change his learning methodology for the sake of victory.

    Thankfully, the situation was also in Fell''s favor as the giant''s innate fighting style leaned toward defense. He wasn''t the type of opponent to be proactive as his range could be severely punished by any fast opponent.

    Due to the special circumstance, Fell''s third fight turned into a stalemate where both opponents constantly elevated each other through the fight. And at some point, every single stroke that the two young swordsmen used were different. Their originality was fully unearthed as they delved body and soul in their fight. A strange cycle of attacking and defending was formed between Fell and the giant.

    The scene gave an odd vibe of friendship. The tall giant and the short blond youth shared the Dao inside of the quiet fighting ring. No words were spoken as the sound of their blade was enough to share their feelings.

 Chapter 83 Pushing Through

    Both parties calmly looked at each other. Their chests heaved ups and down while their lungs made them gasp for air. Fell and the giant swordsman had a large satisfied smile on their lips. None of them had any idea of how long they''ve been trading blows. They only knew one thing, it was that both of them were progressing when it came to their sword art.

    As time passed, Fell began using his newly created sword technique. The first art to make an appearance was ''Moon Above''. As soon as Fell began executing this sword technique, the giant swordsman seemed to lose track of his opponent''s sword.

    His eyes blinked in surprised before refocusing. But even when he squinted his large eyes he still didn''t manage to detect the vague sword in Fell''s hand. The only thing he could vaguely see was a soft light that came from the tip of the sword. The soft light that was produced by the sword was similar to the one a firefly produced, but it wasn''t warm at all and as he felt the blade approach him, the giant felt an icy coldness suffuse from the bladed weapon.

    He immediately understood that the short blond guy in front of him had turned serious. Through the fight, they had shared their view about the sword path. But now was the final moment where they would both reveal everything, they unearthed from the slaughterous path of swords.

    Having felt the killing intent contained in Fell''s sword when he executed ''Moon Above''. The giant''s face turned dark, and he sheathed his four swords in a single movement. His four arms grabbed his weapons in an ''Iai'' form, only this time his pair of lower arms were grabbing his long weapons in a reverse grip. His knee dropped as he crouched in a low position. Due to his abnormal height, as soon as he assumed a low form his weak points in his guard disappeared and he turned into an unconquerable fortress in Fell''s view.

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    Suddenly, Fell stepped inside of his slashing range and the power that was being accumulated inside of the giant''s spear like sword was released in a single draw motion. He didn''t only slash once, but dozens of sword strikes were executed using his special ''Iai'' technique.

    Fell''s field of vision turned red. Thousands upon thousands intricate lines appeared in front of him. Each line was a sword strike that was aimed to take his life. A crazed glow appeared in Fell''s eyes and he fearlessly kicked the ground sending him flying forward. He passed through a thin space between two lines that should have been impossible for him to cross without ''Ghostly Stutter'' and kept crossing the distance between him and the giant''s swordsman. He could hear his own heartbeat through all over his body, but the pressure only helped him in elevating his growing momentum.

    His running speed more than doubled under the effect of ''Ghostly Stutter'', and under the constant pressure, he had to elevate his movement speed even more. Suddenly, phantom limbs appeared under him and instantly disappeared from his opponent''s sight. He reappeared a few steps forward evading dozens of sword lines in the process.

    But, the more he advanced and crossed the distance between him and the giant. The harder it was for him to keep advancing as the net that formed a thousand sword moves was closing on him. He gritted his teeth as his eyes reflected the multitude of crisscrossing lines that were going to disassemble his body.

    He knew that a single mistake meant death. His eyes were gorged red and he felt a constant stinging pain that pierced them. His throat was on fire, and tinnitus kept ringing in his ears. But he didn''t care. He wasn''t the type of person to delve into his own pain. No, he was the type of individual who would forge a path forward. Even in front of death itself.

    Changing his tactic, he decided to go for broke. His legs muscles bulged, and he executed his other movement art, ''Solary Dive'' appeared for the first time during a battle. The ground below his feet turned into a smattering of dust molecules. As soon as he executed ''Solary Dive'', he instantly disappeared from his position traversing the majority of the thousand lines that were enclosing themselves on him. He pierced through them like a bullet and appeared in front of the giant.

 Chapter 84 Respec

    But this act didn''t leave him unscathed. As his leg touched the ground that was in front of the giant, a puddle of blood dropped next to him. The sound of liquid splashing on the ground could be heard; Fell''s right arm had completely disappeared during his dive through the sword net.

    The serious expression on the giant''s face changed as a glint of respect could be now seen of his humongous eyes. If before, he respected Fell as a fellow swordsman. By evading his blow at the cost of an arm, he had gained his respect due to his quick wits and ability to sense danger.

    His face was crooked from the pain, but he couldn''t care the least as he was currently inside of Battle Center. If pain was supposed to be an indicator of injury, then the fact that he was in a game made him completely ignore the fatal injury he just received.

    If he can proudly stand on his feet with a sword in his hand, then that was enough for him. He gazed at the giant''s swordsman''s eyes for a single moment. His right shoulder kept producing a massive amount of blood that splattered on the ground. The vivid pain he felt was enough to make him want to scream. Though as long as his will was intact, then even if he had faced this injury in the real world, he couldn''t care less.

    He had thought that losing his dominant hand would make him fall into a panicked state. But he found himself strangely calm. He even found that the sound that was produced by his blood dripping on the ground was soothing his mind.

    A calm breeze went through them, Fell''s eyelid closed for a moment. During this odd moment, he lost track of time under the cool windy breeze that softly hit his face. This moment seemed to take an eternity yet also seemed to be instantaneous.

    "I must be losing my mind¡­", he thought as he delved in the strange sensation. Strangely, the giant swordsman didn''t use this opportunity to attack. He stood there as if he was part of the environment, he didn''t move a single inch and if anyone else was watching the scene. He would see that both opponents seemed to have turned to rocks, their limb seamlessly having taken root on the fighting ring.

    Suddenly, after being lost in this long yet short moment Fell finally opened his eyes. He looked at the giant swordsman and smiled. A free unfeathered smile that shouldn''t have been on a youth''s face was engraved on his face.

    "Why didn''t you attack me now?", he exclaimed in a calm tone.

    "Respect.", A single word left the giant''s lips. The word was crooked and ushered in a very low pitch but was easily understood by Fell.

    Fell laughed as he heard the man''s answer, an odd feeling blossomed in his heart. Respect was always a strange principle in the core, the strong were respected while the weak were defiled. Under the giant''s wording, the word took a much different sense. Respect not owned by one''s strength, but by one''s action.

    "They lost that in my hometown.", He jokingly exclaimed.

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    "Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!". The giant''s odd voice spread everywhere through the fighting ring and seemed to continue its advance toward the horizon.

    Fell grinned as he saw the giant''s response, and before long he was also laughing at his own joke. It took a few moments before their laughs died. Silence prevailed on the fighting ring as the pressure that both opponents were feeling came back in a dozen fold.

    Not a word left their lips, no mark was given but both opponents moved at the same time. Fell was standing right in front of the giant, he only needed to extend his hand and he would touch the man''s tight.

    First, it was Fell''s left hand that blinked, then it was his whole body that instantly moved.

    "I''ve sacrificed an arm to get this close to you.", he thought as his body moved at a tremendous speed, "I think I deserve at least twice of what I sacrificed!". before the giant swordsman''s hand could even grab the handle of his weapon Fell''s leg kicked the ground as he executed ''Solary Dive'' once again. Two blinding light flashed on his shoulder as two of his arms dropped to the ground with a large thud.

 Chapter 85 Life And Death

    ''Sun Below'' was the complete opposite of ''Moon Above''. If the latter couldn''t be called a slow sword technique it couldn''t be called a fast one either. But ''Sun Below'' is a somewhat more direct sword technique that made its attack much faster than its sister technique. It was the first time in his life that he used it in a fight, but it had already managed to put the balance back in his match with the giant.

    Fell landed softly on his feet behind the giant''s swordsman after he executed his lightning-fast attack. Time seemed to slow down as they stood back to back, their breathing even seemed to synchronize as both of them knew that the fight would end in the next moment. Small pools of blood slowly formed under them as they gasped for air. Although their bodies didn''t seem to move, their minds were fully working as they constantly made minute changes to their positions.

    A single mistake could mean death to both opponents, although ''Sun Below'' had worked perfectly against the towering swordsman. Fell knew that it was mostly due to him having used it for the first time, combined with the incredible momentum he accumulated while evading the giant''s thousands of sword strikes.

    All of their natural advantages disappeared. The difference between their heights didn''t mean anything anymore, and even the fact that the giant still has twice Fell''s limb didn''t matter at this moment. What truly mattered and what would define the intense bout''s winner was their instinct. The instinct they had honed while patiently practicing their swordsmanship for hours and hours.

    What both opponents were looking for was a single moment, and that moment would be the moment where the first one of them moved. Their constant minute shifts in their centers of gravity were all done for a certain purpose; waiting for the moment where one of them would move. Thus, all of their senses were focused on each other as both of them wanted to attack the opponent right at the moment where his mind would be focused on sending a signal to their limbs to moves.

    Under their extreme focus, the surrounding scenery disappeared from their mind then it was the fighting ring that flashed. They stood on the void, back to back, waiting for that infinitely small frame to end the fight in one clean hit.

    Then, as if time took back its property and began flowing again, they moved. To be more precise, Fell was the first one to open the dance while the giant''s swordsman followed closely behind. Their body rotated like a windmill under the influence of a hurricane, and the next moment they faced each other with their swords following closely behind their body.

    Boom! Their swords connected and the fighting ring turned to powder as the place where they stood was leveled from the kinetic energy of their moves. A giant smokescreen soon appeared after the impact, before being blown away by the power of their following strokes. Then it all died down.

    In the middle of the fighting ring stood two figures. Their heights differed largely but their posture couldn''t be more similar, they stood quietly in the middle of the semi destructed platform. Dust began falling all around them forming small snow like crystal that fell around them.

    A multitude of lines could be seen on their bodies, and they traveled all over their body. The lines soon took a slight tinge of red, before turning into cascades of blood. Then, the giant dropped to his knee with thud raising a cloud of dust.

    "You¡­ have won¡­", he managed to growl before his body collapsed on the ground. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

    Fell calmly gazed at his opponents, his avatar''s blond hair was tinged red. He then followed the giant, and his body tilted to the side as he also collapsed on the damaged tiles of the fighting ring.

    He breathed with difficulty as he waited for Battle Center''s system to announce the victor, and soon enough the usual notification from the game''s system appeared in front of his eyes.

    "Stroke has defeated Karukobi. Your current score is 3 Win/ 0 Loss!"

    As the message appeared, he knew that the soft light that appeared on the fighter''s body when the match ended made its appearance again.

    "Faster¡­ faster¡­", He thought as he gritted his teeth while feeling a fiery pain rage through his falling innards, "Fuck! Who would have thought that having your intestine fall out hurt this much". He thought before closing his eyes.

    Not even a second later, he opened his eyes and without surprise, he was standing on his own mountain peak. All the injuries that riddled his body also disappeared ending the pain he was feeling.

 Chapter 86 Logging Ou

    After having fought Karukobi in a bloody fight that took both of them beyond their limits, Fell decided that it was time for him to take a break from Battle Center. Obviously, his body could go on for as much he wanted. But his mind was getting weary from the dozens of injuries he had taken during his three matches. Thus, after joking lightly with Senior Mountain he logged out of the game.

    As soon as he thought about disconnecting from the game. An interface appeared in front of him, he accepted its contents and his surroundings changed drastically. The tiles under his feet began disintegrating, then his surroundings turned into a void filled with the piece that made his surroundings.

    Then, the next moment in front of his sight was a ceiling. He blinked his eyes and got up from the chair-like construct that took the user in the virtual world of Battle Center. The first thing he did after getting was stretching his rigid body, popping sounds were produced every time he moved his limbs. After laying on the metallic bed that contained the cerebral link for who knows how long, his body''s joints had stiffened and needed to be stretched.

    After a few minutes of soft movements, he felt that it was enough and began moving towards the tutorial room''s door. As his arm was extending toward the dial that was made to open to door, he heard a clicking sound and the metallic frame of the door separated in two. His eyebrows rose slightly as he didn''t know that the door had such an option, but he didn''t think too much about it and resumed his steps.

    He then left the tutorial room and turned to the left in the direction of the elevator. He felt a soft object connect with his body and heard a slight pained moan. Thud! A pair of buttocks hit the hard floor under their feet.

    "Oh¡­ sorry!", he swiftly apologized as he understood that he had bumped into someone. His hand was rubbing the back of his head as he felt slightly ashamed that he hadn''t noticed the person. He focused his sight on the figure that was sitting on the floor. She was rubbing her buttocks to ease her pain. It seemed that she was running quite fast before jolting onto Fell.

    "Sowwy my ass!", the person responded in a slightly drunken voice.

    As Fell''s sight focused on the person''s face, he immediately recognized the person as she was the first individual he had met when he entered Battle Center. She was Tahlya, the battle maiden that was taking care of Fell''s debut in Battle Center.

    She had been told to wait for Fell to finish his first session in the tutorial room and was supposed to explain to him what were the next courses of action he needs to partake. But that bastard had completely fallen under the game''s realism and immediately began the Phase II . As she was under a legal obligation if she didn''t want to lose her job, she needed to wait for him to leave his room. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

    But she had been told by the tech staff that the idiot had already fought one match and didn''t seem to be in a hurry to leave the virtual world. Thus, she decided to kill time and began drinking in her office. Usually, she would never do such a dangerous act that could ruin her reputation. But Fell meant too much of a big opportunity for her, and the fact that he had risked ruining their chances was too much for her to shoulder.

    Thus, she ended up being drunk quite fast. A few minutes earlier, she had been dozing off under the effect of the liquor until she received a message notifying her that the fighter under her supervision had disconnected from Battle Center. She immediately left her room in a hurry, the intoxication she was under made her steps hazy, but she still needed to rant on that bastard.

    As she was afraid that the bastard would log on the game again, she made her upmost to arrive at his tutorial room as she was afraid, he just disconnected to use the bathroom.

    "Bastard!", She said as she tried to get up. But the liquor that was in her body didn''t make the simple act easy.

 Chapter 87 Second Meeting

    Fell''s eyebrows rose as he heard her curse him, but he didn''t take it at heart as he thought she must have hurt herself badly in the fall. He extended his hand toward her in an attempt to help her, but she slapped his hand away and took her time in getting up.

    Fell didn''t know if he should laugh or cry in front of the scene as he saw her execute strange movements in an attempt to get back on her feet. But her senses were in shambles due to the intoxication and her anger towards Fell.

    She soon abandoned and looked coldly toward Fell. He gazed at her with cold but fiery eyes, puzzled at what action he should take.

    "Fuck! I didn''t think that uncle Zhang would be so right about women. The hell are those strange creatures?!", he thought as he lost himself in the beauty of her pupils.

    As she saw the youth in front of her look deeply in her eyes. Anger flashed in her eyes as she thought he was mocking her. But how could she know that Fell had very few interactions with the female gender? In the core, he was used to minding his own business and due to the fact that survival was what mattered. He had never learned how to socialize and how to act with them. Not like he was interested in the hookers there. But that still made Fell an individual that never happened to develop social skills that were up to the norms.

    Time ticked slowly as they kept looking at each other''s eyes. Tahlya soon enough understood that the man in front of her really wouldn''t help get up. Her head dropped low as she weakly extended a hand forward, Fell wasn''t sure if this was an act of her or if she genuinely asking for help.

    His hand extended and touched hers, the first thing he felt was her soft rosy supple skin. As he touched her hand, he felt that the sensation was very pleasing and slid his finger slightly on her hand to get the same feeling again. Her head dropped down even lower and a tinge of red could be seen on her neck. Thankfully, it was currently very late at night and no one was around in the tutorial floor to see that.

    "Stop dozing off.", a little voice escaped from her lips. She bit her lips as she raised her head toward Fell. Fell''s heart skipped a beat as he saw her face. He didn''t know if it was due to the fact that she was drunk or if it was just his mind. But he found that the ashamed Tahlya was particularly cute.

    Those feelings were kind of new to him, thus he decided to keep teasing her for a few more seconds before helping. Time seemed to crawl in Tahlya''s perspective as she soon turned into a red tomato and finally, she couldn''t take it anymore and began cursing Fell again.

    Finally, he used a little bit of strength and she was back on both of her feet. She looked at Fell one last time while gnashing her teeth, her eyes glowed with a fiery red light in the dim lighted narrow hall. But seeing that Fell kept looking at her as if she was a cute kitten, she finally had had enough and turn around. She stomped on the ground to calm her nerves and began walking. She opened her lips and exclaimed without turning around.

    "Follow me to my office, There are several matters that need to be discussed.", She swiftly said without any of the drunkenness that she seemed to be under earlier. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

    As he saw her pretty figure walk away and heard what she said, Fell stepped forward as he quickly caught up with her.

    "What kind of things?", He asked as curiosity took over him. As she moved in front of him, he could see her charming behind sway left and right. His sight seemed to magically be attracted to it.

    "Nothing of a big deal, only something that could change your future.", She answered in a swift manner while moving her hand as if it wasn''t anything serious. "And mine too", she added in her mind before sighing.

    They soon arrived in front of the elevator; Tahlya extended her hand that contained a magnetic card and swiped it near the side of the elevator''s door.

    The metallic door frame of the elevator split in half revealing its interior. Both of them entered it, Tahlya pressed a dial before looking straight into Fell''s eyes.

    "How did your first three matches go in the tutorial''s phase II?", She asked as concern appeared in her eyes.

 Chapter 88 Ancestor

    It wasn''t concern about Fell''s well-being, but more about her own future potential. She knew based on the game''s systems info that he had dealt with three of his five first match, but she had no idea about the actual result.

    "They were¡­ Interesting!", he responded with a beaming smile. "I''ve met several great opponents, I think I like this game. It''s called Battle League, right?". As he began talking, his eyes glowed with passion and he began a long monologue about the game''s realism, about the sensations he had felt. He even described how it felt when he had gone through long-distance transportation.

    Tahlya was surprised when she saw this side of Fell''s personality. She smiled inwardly as she thought that in the end, he was just a normal youth, and the fact that he was a talented individual wouldn''t change that. Fell kept going on for a minute before the elevator finally stopped.

    The metallic door frame split in half revealing a new floor to Fell''s sight. The first thing he saw was the luxurious red carpet that was on the floor, he noticed that there were several other furniture inside the hall in front of the elevators. Several paintings were hanged on the walls to the sides, and one of them contained an image of a man''s back. The painting took Fell''s attention for a short time as the background couldn''t be anything but gorgeous.

    The man in the painting was standing on a large chunk of rock. He was wearing a classic eastern dress, and his torso was naked as his back could be seen. The muscles on his back were well defined and even seemed to form a strange array as he noticed that there was a strange pattern. He focused his eyes on the man''s back and noticed that his dorsal muscles formed a strange face. A demon''s face.

    Not only was the man''s pause grandiose, but the background was also incredible as the man in the painting was standing in the middle of space. The huge chunk of rock that he stood on seemed to be drifting in the middle of space, and the rest of the painting was filled with a near-infinite number of stars. He squinted his eyes as he tried to appreciate the details in the painting and noticed that the stars were actually planets. They were drawn on such a small scale that they only seemed to be colorful dots. Fell''s eyes rose from surprise as he couldn''t help but feel respect for the artist that made it. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

    "It''s one of Battle League''s forefathers. One of the most respected men in the universe, legends foretell that he is nearly as old as the world we live in.", seeing that Fell was interested in the picture with the man''s back. She began explaining the painting''s origin.

    "You mean as old as Earth?", He asked while doubting his own comprehension. He didn''t dare to believe that the man was as old as the universe, but if his age could be counted in billion years that was already beyond frightening.

    Tahlya nodded confirming Fell''s question. Fell''s heart thumped in his chest while his limb shook for a moment. She laughed as she saw the youth''s reaction, she didn''t want to tell him that those were just legends that were passed through New Casablanca''s Battle Center. She never found if it was true, neither did she learned the opposite. Thus, she simply passed on the legend to Fell and didn''t explain more.

    "Incredible, I never thought that cultivators could live on for so long?!", he thought as he imagined how a person''s psyche would change after existing for so long. "Are they even the same person as when they were mortals?", question filled his mind as he began drifting in his imagination. "Maybe¡­ I''ll find the answer someday! Maybe¡­ I can also¡­ attain the peak!?", his blood coursed through his veins as his determination was ignited. He stopped looking at the paintings on the walls, and Tahlya resumed her steps while Fell followed behind her.

    Fell didn''t speak for the rest of the short journey on the luxurious floor. He quietly followed her and seemed to be lost in his pondering. She assumed that his spirit must be shaken from the information and a small grin appeared on her face as she was satisfied to get a little revenge.

 Chapter 89 Knowing Each Other

    Silence prevailed as their steps made muffled noises on the red carpet. After a minute of walking, Tahlya finally came to a stop in front of a door. She swiped her card on the side of her office''s entrance, and after a flash of green light, the door smoothly opened.

    Tahlya walked inside of her office and exclaimed without turning back. "Come in, feel free to sit wherever you want!", She walked towards a couch and sat on it then she quietly watched Fell choose a random spot in the room. He found a comfortable office chair to sit on.

    "How much have you learned about Battle League?", She asked as she saw that he was ready for the serious talk.

    "It is one of the many ways the Corporates of Heaven Ascension Court have found to distribute cultivation culture through the vast universe.", He explained fluidly as he already knew the answer.

    "Correct.", she responded with her eyes flashing from surprise. "He isn''t that dumb, then¡­", she thought while gazing at Fell''s youthful face. "Then, what do you think they will do when talented figures appear in their game?", she asked the youth with a soft voice.

    Fell thought for a few seconds as he remembered what Senior Mountain had told him. He thought about the second phase of the tutorial, and about how vast the mountains extended on it. His eyes flashed in a soft light before he opened his lips.

    "They will probably nurture them.", He responded with a short answer.

    "Correct again, although that''s their usual process but reality¡­ isn''t that simple!", she paused as her watery eyes blinked for a moment, "What If a genius from a universal clan played the game and made it to the top, would they also nurture him?". After asking her question, she calmly looked at Fell with a slight smile on her face and waited for his answer.

    Fell''s hand rose to his face and rested on his chin, his eyes stared at the ceiling as he thought about the specific case she put in front of him. He knew that cultivators where rarely altruistic, although some of them might be. But the majority of embarked on this grand road to acquire immortality, and it was well known that immortality was a solitary road. Seeing your loved one die and watching your descendants grow could cause some people to grow distant from the mortal world.

    The more one climbs on heaven''s steps, the lesser the number of individuals he could meet. It wasn''t a matter of power, strength or seniority; but it was more closely linked to their psyche. Living thousands of years could change anyone''s perspective about life, the way they saw others would change as much as the way they saw themselves.

    He lost himself in his thinking for a minute or two before opening his lips to give Tahlya an answer. As he took his time to answer Tahlya''s curiosity was lighted as she patiently waited while musing about the youth''s response.

    "It depends on the genius'' background! Why would they feed someone who already has a plate filled with meat?" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

    Her eyes grow wide as she didn''t expect him to give her the answer she wanted. She had thought that he was just another rich kid for New Casablanca''s main districts. But the more she conversed with him, the more she found out that he wasn''t like the others. The more she cleaned the dirt out of the jewel she picked, the more she was surprised to find that he was top quality.

    If only he had taken it step by step, he might have ascended toward the higher realms much if he had gotten the top rewards in . "There is no pill for regret¡­", she thought as she lost herself in her thinking. She bit her rosy lips from frustration before shaking her head to clear her thoughts.

    "What''s your current win rate?", she asked as apprehension appeared on her hearth. "Even if he failed miserably, it will only make the journey longer¡­", she thought while gazing at Fell.

    Fell lifted his arm toward her and made a three with his hand.

    "Much worse than I thought¡­", she exclaimed loudly as her body softened inside of the couch.

    "Three win.", Fell added but Tahlya didn''t seem to hear his voice as she was lingering on her nascent depression.

    Her mind had already begun calculating the next course of action as the next two matches couldn''t be lost. Suddenly her body shook as if it was hit with an electric shock.

 Chapter 90 Surprise

    "What!? Three W¡­win!?", She asked as she jumped out of the couch. Her whole body shook from adrenaline as she seemed to have been revived from the youth''s answer. Her heart thumped in her chest and her clenched fist trembled slightly as she waited for Fell''s confirmation.

    Fell smiled lightly and nodded toward her. He didn''t understand her reaction, he did win three matches but there were still two more. And to be honest, only his fight with Karukobi forced him into seriousness. Although Ainqi Baa and Arhash were fearsome opponents; in the end, he beated them using only his new swordless art and used them to train his techniques.

    Tahlya sighed as she didn''t saw any sign of cockiness inside the youth. "Doesn''t he know what three wins mean?", she thought as she eyed him to see if he was acting. But he truly didn''t seem overconfident due to his victories.

    The more she interacted with Fell, the more she came to understand that he was an eccentric. Someone who didn''t act according to social norms.

    "Great!", She finally managed to blurt before slumping back on the couch. She deeply breathed in and out a few times before managing to slightly calm her heart that wanted to leave her chest. Then she looked towards Fell, lifted her arm and sent him a thumbs up while adding.

    "Now your next goal is to make your upmost in winning your next two fights! The reward you will get in case you manage a perfect victory are said to be heaven-defying!", She seemed to have lost control over her lips as the speed at which she talked spiked under her excitation. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

    Before, she would have never considered saying what had just escaped from her lips. But Fell''s talent pierced through all of her past beliefs. She knew that the person that was sitting in front of her was talented beyond what she hoped for. Her goal might come to reality much earlier than she thought.

    As soon as she ended explaining what needed to be done to achieve success in she got up from her couch. Tahlya walked toward the desk that was in the corner of the room. She opened one of the drawers and took out a sealed bottle from there.

    She came back to where Fell was sitting and showed him the bottle she had in her hands while explaining.

    "I prepared this a long time ago in case something worth celebrating happened.", She explained as her hand moved. She skillfully took off the sealing on top of the bottle and took out a corkscrew from her pocket.

    Pop! Her head was lifted as she saw the cork fly at a breakneck pace toward the ceiling. Pa!Pa! It rebounded twice before traveling in the direction of Fell''s face. The moment the cork entered Fell''s range his arm moved on its own catching it mid-air. He got up from his chair before putting the caught cork on the table. Tahlya''s mouth gaped from her inner shock as she didn''t even have the time to warn him. She saw the whole scene, and before she even had to usher any noise she saw him caught the flying object with ease.

    Time passed as she eyed the youth with a strange gaze, she didn''t know how to react after watching the scene unravel. It took her a few moments before her legs stopped taking root on the ground.

    "Nothing to be surprised about¡­", She thought as she sat down on her chest. "To compete against them, it''s only normal that he has this kind of reaction time."

    How could she know that Fell was already a cultivator? Having broken through the first door of cultivation at a young age, he did look much younger than what he really was. If it wasn''t for his well-defined build, she would have assumed he was just a normal sixteen-year-old youth.

    "Weren''t we going to celebrate?", Fell exclaimed taking her out of her reverie. "Let me help, where are the glasses?", as she heard him she pointed her finger behind him. He got up and opened the small cabinet that was close to her desk, and took out two glass.

    Soon enough the awkwardness disappeared from the room as the sound of laughter resounded through the empty floor.

 Chapter 91 Getting Back Home

    Fell''s reflexes weren''t the only shocking event that left Tahlya baffled. She couldn''t believe her eyes as she saw him guzzle one glass after another; emptying her pricy bottle in a few minutes. She had to get going toward her desk, taking out one bottle after another. Thankfully, she had a habit of drinking in her office, thus had quite the large reserve hidden there. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

    Not even an hour later, the laughter died down as Tahlya seemed to fall slightly inside of twilight sleep. Fell saw her watery eyes as they began closing, and her eyelashes seemed to tremble slightly before calming down. A soft moan escaped from her lips as she dug deeper inside of her couch.

    "Females are quite the cute creatures¡­", he thought as his hand approached the space between his eyebrows. With swift moves from his arm, he took out a warm blanket and put it over her supple body. "But, I still feel that she didn''t tell me everything. Just in case, I won''t fully reveal myself.", he thought as he understood that his instinct as a cultivator couldn''t be ignored. Although he was far from attaining foresight, he was still very perceptive when it came to catching on details.

    He looked at her one last time before leaving her office. He silently traversed the large hall and finally arrived in front of the elevator. A few minutes later, he was back in the streets of New Casablanca. It was currently deep in the middle of the night, and only a few rare souls could be noticed walking on the sideways.

    He filled his lungs with fresh air and began walking towards his apartment in the large streets. As his steps took him where he lived, his mind was freshened as he had stayed too much indoors. Although he had felt the wind softly brush his skin inside of Battle League, in the end, the in-game sensations were ninety-nine percent realistic. But that one lacking percent was the difference between Heaven and Earth.

    That was also one of the main reasons that he had decided to take a break from the game. His sword styles had been created inside of a virtual world, and although the result was infinitely close to how he visualized them. He knew that it was far from perfection; Thus he needed to revise them one more time before he continued in his conquest of the tutorial''s second phase .

    A minute flaw might not cause him to lose against an average opponent. But as he would keep climbing on the ladder, any flaw as little as it could be could end up being used by his opponent. In a battle between talented opponents, any opportunity could be used to determine victory. Fell was very much aware of this fact and had even noticed part of it during his battle with Karukobi.

    "Now that I think about it. What the hell has Wind been up to lately?", He thought about the young lad that he had helped breakthrough after his fight with the general from the Golden Family. His steps'' cadence augmented as he saw his apartment''s building appear in his sight, and soon enough he was already in the elevator.

    As it was already deep in the night, he met no one during the small journey. Silence prevailed in the building as he approached his doorstep. No sound came from his apartment, his eyebrow rose as he thought that Wind must be deeply sleeping.

    His arm flashed in front of him swiping his card close to the door''s handle. Ding! A soft green light flashed in the dark and he entered his apartment with silent steps.

    He saw his living room bask in the dark. And began touring his apartment looking out for Wind as he had plans for him. Soon enough, he found the bastard sleeping quietly in his bed. Fell saw the youth hug a pillow between his arms and legs and decided to let him finish his sleep before debuting his plans.

    He had been thinking about a way to finish his studies on blood essence and had finally found a way to achieve a decent result. He knew that if he wanted to understand cultivators'' blood essence, he would need to see the transformation of a mortal''s blood to a cultivator''s one. Thus he decided that it was time for Wind to finally begin his training; blood and sweat awaited the sleeping official who didn''t know that Hell was falling over him.

 Chapter 92 Foundational Training

    Fell quietly walked inside of an empty room in his apartment. The dimly lighted room managed to slightly relax his overused senses as he had been under tremendous pressure in Battle League. He decided that he should meditate a little bit as he had focused too much on training his skills.

    He walked towards the bed in the room and sat on it, his leg crossed as he sat in a lotus position. After a few moments, his breathing was regulated, and he soon attained a correct meditation condition. Time ticked as his mind thought about nothing. Every time he breathed out, he felt as if his insecurities and fears about the future were being cleansed out of his psyche.

    His mind seemed to expand under his breathing exercise and his awareness went from introspective to retrospective. The night quietly passed without any noticeable event and soon enough, the morning''s soft light illuminated the streets of New Casablanca.

    Fell heard some movement in the house causing his eyelids to open up. His hand slapped the ground lifting himself in an instant, and popping sound escaped from his joints as he moved his limbs around. A satisfied smiled appeared on his face as he silently walked out of the room.

    He walked straight towards the bathroom as he had heard the door being closed a few seconds before. His hand grabbed the metallic handle and swiftly turned opening the door. A panicked scream resounded through Fell''s apartment and a naked Wind could be seen hiding his body parts.

    "Your training starts today!", Fell exclaimed loudly as he startled the sleepy Wind.

    "Ehh!?", A strange sound escaped from Wind as he began to understand who the individual in front of him was. Fell had left the apartment in a hurry last time, and he didn''t seem to be coming back anytime soon. Wind began enjoying his life in the apartment and spent most of his day relaxing while emptying the fridge. "Nn¡­now?", Wind finally managed to blurt a word.

    Fell nodded with a serious expression on his face. A chilling smile was slowly drawing on his face as he spoke again.

    "Prepare yourself as you will sweat blood today! I''ll advise that you shower to awaken your mind.", He advised him as he left the bathroom.

    Wind shivered as he saw the demonic expression on his brother''s face. Fear flashed on his eyes as he weakly asked, "Are you serious, brother?! Am I seriously going to sweat blood?". He looked at his skin with a pitiful gaze as his imagination filled his mind with fear.

    Fell didn''t respond to Wind''s panicked questions and walked toward the kitchen. Anzar had taught him that nutrition was a major pillar when it came to training, and as he would take Wind through hell itself during his training, he should at least fill his stomach. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

    He lit up the electric stove in his kitchen and began working on cooking a nutritive breakfast. He took out dozens of eggs out of the fridge and several other condiments. Herbs that helped in blood circulation, spices that helped waking up the mind.

    His hand flashed in front of him, and all of the eggs were broken in half while their contents dropped inside of a large bowl. He grabbed a knife in front of him and minced the herbs together. His movement stopped when the herbs attained a satisfying size and texture.

    During this time, he could hear the sound of water flowing inside the shower. Knowing that the young official would be ready soon, he worked faster toward finishing the nutritive meal. He walked towards the fridge and took out a large basket filled with potatoes. After a few movements of his limbs, the potatoes were peeled and cut in small cubes.

    He grabbed a bottle filled with oil, and his wrist snapped as he oiled a large metallic pan. After mixing the eggs with the herbs, spices, and potatoes inside of the bowl, he threw its content on the pans.

    Time slowly ticked and soon enough breakfast was ready. He heard the bathroom door open as a fresh Wind stepped outside, he breathed in and felt a salivating aroma brush his nostrils. His leg took him towards the odor''s origin, and he soon found a sitting Fell in the kitchen.

    In front of him was a large plate filled with an omelet. He focused on the meal and noticed small cubic shaped potato and asked in a doubtful voice.

    "Isn''t it supposed to be breakfast? Won''t I throw up from overeating?", he asked as he drew a chair to sit on.

 Chapter 93 Change In Character

    Fell laughed as he heard the young official, and responded with a smile on his face. "Don''t worry about throwing up. I can always make more food!", he winked toward Wind before adding. "Now eat. Time won''t wait for you! I''ve added a few special ingredients that will help in your training, so don''t hesitate to finish two or three plates.", he encouraged Wind to eat while filling his own plate before wolfing down on it.

    Wind saw his brother begin his attack and follow suit. He decided to fully trust his brother''s qualifications and emptied his plate not once but twice. A satisfied sigh escaped from his lips as he reclined himself on the chair, his hand patted his bulging stomach with satisfaction.

    Fell got up from the table and contacted Walter as he needed a place where Wind could train without being bothered. After a few calls from the police officer, he received a location and was told that he was sent by him. Fell filled his spacial pocket with a few necessities and told Wind to change cloth. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

    As the young official didn''t have many clothes to wear Fell gave him a martial attire to wear. Wind donned the suit in an instant and looked for a mirror. He looked at himself and exclaimed whit a raised chest.

    "Look Bro, I''m quite dashing! Right?", he asked with a little bit of grease on the side of his lips.

    "Yeah yeah, time to go.", Fell responded while urging the youth.

    Wind knew that it was finally time for him to begin his foundation training as a cultivator. He clenched his hand in a solid fist and raised it toward the ceiling to raise his own spirit. His eyes burned with passion while his bulged stomach shook every time he moved his body.

    In the time it took them to walk toward the location Walter had found them. Wind managed to digest part of the food he had eaten although his stomach was still protruding, and as he approached the place where his hellish training would begin. His heart began beating faster inside of his chest and fear mixed with excitation caused him to sweat buckets without even beginning to actually train.

    Fell had been told by Walter that the location he had given him was a private building that was used by the noble family for their training sessions. Each floor could only be rented by a single person, and it was fully equipped by high-end top tier equipment. Interest appeared in his mind as he had yet found an opportunity to test his physical capabilities after his last breakthroughs.

    The said building soon came to their views and they quietly entered it. After paying the fees to Walter''s contact, they entered floor 23rd that they had rented. The floor was made of four different rooms, each room''s goal was to train a specific trait. Speed, Strength, Endurance, and comprehension.

    Fell entered the floor with a timid Wind following his steps, they made a quick tour of the four different rooms they had at disposition and Fell quickly made a plan about Wind''s training plan.

    "His main focus should be put on endurance¡­ Focusing on speed or even his comprehension of martial art wouldn''t help in any way¡­ Yeah, endurance is the way, and that''s the same way I took!", as soon as he decided himself. He grabbed Wind by the collar and lifted him toward the room. The startled young official began moving his limbs in a panic he shouted on top of his head.

    "Whaaaat are you doing brother?! Calm down, calm down?", but he got no response from his plea.

    "Listen, I didn''t say you were going to pass through Hell because the training will be hard. But simply because I will be supervising your training!", he calmly smiled as he stepped toward the endurance room.

    "First rule, you question my practice I smack your face. Second rule, No talking back. Third rule, don''t talk during the training.", He explained succinctly with a calm voice. But the calmness in his tone only made Wind''s nervousness to spike even more; his eyes opened widely as he soon understood what he heard.

    "Aren''t those the sa¡­", as soon as he began talking his hand flashed blocking what he was going to say. "I meant Yes Sir!", he completely changed what he was going to say as he knew that the current Fell wasn''t the kind to be joking.

 Chapter 94 Running To Death

    Fell''s eyebrow rose in surprise as he noticed the change that instantly took place over Wind''s psyche. "What the hell is wrong with this guy?", he thought as his mind was reminded about Wind''s soul cultivation breakthrough. The young official had managed to enter a deep dreaming state while being awake, and that happened just because he had talked about the grand ways of cultivation.

    Fell decided that he should be more perceptive about the particularities of Wind as a cultivator. if he wanted to help him cultivate successfully, he needed to pay more attention to him.

    After putting Wind on the ground, he looked at him with a smile on his lips and pointed to the door that led to the endurance room.

    "Go there and run. Don''t stop as long as I don''t say anything.", as soon as he finished speaking Wind immediately turn around and entered the endurance room. A satisfied smile appeared on Fell''s face as he began walking toward the observation room. Inside of it were several screens that reflected the content of the several training rooms, and in one of the screens could be seen Wind''s frail figure.

    The Endurance room was simply built: Only a large circuit could be seen on it and Fell knew that the difficulty could be upped with several features. As the room was focused on building endurance, it would help an individual breakthrough their limits and get accustomed to the said limits. Thus, the several features were made to change the room''s temperature, internal pressure and other factors like humidity. However, those were only a single facet of the room''s features, and that was accurately recording all the information about the user. From heartbeat and blood pressure to the brain waves activities, this gave ample material for his research. Helping Wind with his training would also help him understand Blood Essence, although Fell wasn''t much of a researcher himself, he wasn''t the kind of individual to be afraid of a new subject, thus he was ready to fully delve in the future research.

    Fell sat in front of the screen, he pressed a dial and spoke in an authoritative voice. "Run! You can stop after doing one hundred laps." Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

    "Yes!", Wind''s voice resounded from the speaker in front of Fell. Although the number of laps had scared him, he was currently in a strange mental state, and an unfounded confidence seemed to have taken grasp in his mind. Although he feared Fell''s repercussions, he was confident in his own ways and was sure that he wouldn''t disappoint the young cultivator.

    Time passed as Wind gradually finished the first lap, then without pausing as Fell told him he began his second lap. His muscles tingled every time his feet touched the ground, his chest rose high and down as he focused on synchronizing his breathing with his running form. It was the first time in his life that he felt the joy of training, and he soon entered a deeply focused state. Soon enough he finished the second lap then the third one, and time passed as Fell kept recording Wind''s data.

    Finally, Wind hit his first wall. Although he had been doing his utmost in managing his breaths, he soon lost control of it. Every time air passed through his throat, he would feel a fiery sensation burn his lung. Soon enough, this caused his running form to be degraded. But even with that, he didn''t stop as his legs kept advancing in the circuit. Although his body was beginning to fail him, his mind was still firm and the confidence he had made him put even more strength in his steps.

    As he saw that a smile appeared on Fell''s face as he was now sure about his decision. Although it might be difficult, the young official wouldn''t be the type to be afraid of pain. Success always came with its own degree of hardship, walls that were simply made to be broken down. What was incredible in Wind''s psyche was that he fully knew and understood this principle.

 Chapter 95 Resul

    Time passed and Wind''s first training session finished. He laid on the Endurance room''s floor while gasping for every ounce of oxygen in the room. His throat and lungs felt as if a fire raged through them. All of the muscles on his body were screaming from pain; his limbs endlessly trembled after the tremendous effort.

    It had taken him most of the day, but he had executed Fell''s order to the letter. Thus, he had run one hundred laps in the room without taking any pause, he had taken his body through a journey that he shouldn''t have been capable of accomplishing. But he did it, and without stopping once nor asking Fell to take a pause.

    Although his brain was foggy and he felt like every single organ in his body was going to fail, a crooked smile could be seen on his reddened face, and pride filled his heart as he had accomplished something he never thought he could do. Thankfully, he knew that he was monitored by Fell and that gave him the opportunity to fully focus on his training. If not, he might have killed himself if he overdid it.

    Fell didn''t think that the youth in front of him could complete the one hundred laps in a single sitting. But he was pleasantly surprised when he saw that Wind''s posturing wasn''t completely false. As soon as Wind began acting like a soldier, it seemed as if a battle heartened general took over his mind as he completely focused on accomplishing the task at any cost.

    "Can it be his particularity as a Soul Cultivator?", he thought while lifting himself from the chair in the observation room. He stepped out as he began making his way toward his student. "AI, did you record the changes that were happening to his body?", he exclaimed while thinking about the changed that began occurring in Wind''s blood essence. "Yes.", a robotic voice resounded in his head as a long list of data appeared in front of him. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

    He traversed the entire training floor while gazing at the large numbers. "Just like I noticed. Even if his blood essence seems less vibrant and even looks like it''s going to disappear, what is left is truly much more concentrated¡­", he thought as he executed Blood Detection. The red blood dot that represented Wind''s blood essence appeared in his mental map. The dot was so small that it seemed like it was just part of Fell''s imagination. But its color and the sensation it gave to Fell showed that it had truly strengthened.

    He finally arrived in front of the endurance room and stepped inside. As he entered the room, he saw Wind laying on top of a huge puddle of sweat. The color of his skin had gone to transparent pale, and his breathing was haggard and irregular as if it was going to stop at any moment.

    He calmly stepped towards the young official. His hand rose toward the space between his eyebrows. A small light flashed in front of Fell''s face and a pill appeared between his fingers. He took a bottle of water out of his spatial pocket, and with slight pressure from his fingers, the pill cracked and turned into powder.

    After mixing the powder into the water, it transformed into a light azure blue colored liquid. Fell''s crouched on the ground as he patiently examined Wind''s condition. His face turned serious as he used his senses to check the insides of Wind''s body, his eyebrow rose as he noticed that most of the young official''s muscle seemed to have been broken down by a steamroller.

    "Maybe I was too harsh¡­", he softly exclaimed while lifting the youth''s head. He inclined it a little bit down and poured several mouthfuls of the azure-colored liquid in Wind''s mouth. The young official sucked on the bottle as if it was the first time he drank something, his eyes glowed from bliss as he felt the liquid humidify his dried organs.

    Time passed slowly as Wind began recovering some strength. After half an hour passed, he finally seemed to regain consciousness about his surroundings as he noticed Fell a few meters from him. A short memory flashed through his mind as he immediately denied what he had heard before.

    "No brother, it needs to be hard. Difficulty is what makes the journey worth it!", he exclaimed as his weakened mind had caught Fell''s doubtful words earlier.

 Chapter 96 Reading Time

    A prideful grin appeared on Fell''s youthful face as soon as he heard Wind''s first word after getting his spirit back. The last few doubts he had about Wind''s future disappeared the moment he heard the young official. As he was sure now that the young official had a clear talent for cultivation.

    "Good answer!", Fell responded while slapping his tight. He extended the arm that was grasping the bottle toward Wind while explaining its content.

    "This bottle contains water that has been diluted with a mild pill. This pill will help in your recovery as it will heal your broken muscle while hydrating your body.", he paused for a second before adding. "Try to drink its content slowl¡­", he didn''t even have the time to finish before Wind jumped on the bottle and sucked its content with the might of a hungry baby.

    Fell''s eyes opened widely as he remembered a mistake he did when he first began cultivating. "Hopefully the pill I gave him isn''t really a cultivators pill as it can also be used to treat mortal''s injury.", he watched Wind empty the bottle in a single go with a dumbfounded face.

    He didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry in front of the scene as Wind couldn''t really be blamed for it. In the end, it was still Fell''s fault as Wind had sweated a dangerous amount of perspiration, and his skin was so dry that it began cracking.

    A long satisfied burp rushed out of Wind''s mouth before a pleasurable sigh escaped from his lips. He moved his limb around as he felt that his pained muscles weren''t that painful anymore. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

    "Is this the runner''s high?", moans escaped from his throat as he began massaging his thigh. "I''ve read online that the brain release tons of dopamine and hormone to recover after a training session.", his hands ran all over his body as he repeatedly moaned while releasing the tension in his broken muscles.

    Fell''s heart shook as he was even more sure about his decision. Even if Wind was an eccentric youth that gave him the creeps from time to time, in the end, he had shown him that he hadn''t just been sitting around when he was in Battle League. His research about training might be flawed as they were made for mortals, but that would still help him during his tutoring.

    Fell watched quietly as Wind took care of his damaged body and time flowed quietly. Not even ten minutes later Wind was back on his feet and none of the past exhaustion could be seen on his body.

    If it weren''t for his dirty clothing and unkempt hair, he wouldn''t look like he just came back from a deadly training session. Although it had just been a few hours, those few hours had already begun showing the effects on the young official as his stance and breathing weren''t as shabby as before.

    Although his standing form was straight before, his neck was always slightly crooked forward and his shoulders were slightly rounded causing some imbalance. As for his breathing, after the one hundred laps, his cardiovascular system seemed to have gone through a tempering by fire. His breath wasn''t as shallow as before as he now had long and powerful respiration.

    "Physical training has ended for today. Take your time to digest the changes that are happening in your body as you are still digesting the medicine you took.", Fell calmly explained while looking at the prideful youth.

    "But that doesn''t mean the end of your training for today. Time to begin your own personal training!", With a swipe of his hand, he took out several books from his spatial pocket before throwing them towards Wind. The young official managed to catch the book in surprise before looking down at them. "Foundational Breathing Technique?!", he read the title while puzzlement took over his mind.

    His eyebrows rose as he thought that his senior brother must be joking with him. "Why would he need to learn how to breathe? Doesn''t all species on Earth know how to breathe?", he thought as he looked at Fell with a doubtful gaze. He looked at the rest of the book and thought that his senior was pranking him. The relation between breathing and walking. How to synchronize your breath with your movement. Theory about full breath and its effect on the body.

    "Stop looking at me like that! Those are books I''ve picked in the Comprehension room, read them tonight as they will help you master breathing technique much faster.", Fell exclaimed while shooing the young official with his left hand. "Now go pick a random spot and begin studying!", an authoritative tone appeared in Fell''s last word causing Wind to dart from where he stood.

 Chapter 97 Winds Hidden Talen

    The young official ran to a side of the room before sitting down half-hearted, he grumpily began reading the book''s contents as he didn''t want to get beaten by Fell. Although he still never took a single blow from Fell, and he was sure that his fragile body would break on the spot if Fell slapped him too hard.

    Fell quietly took out his sword from his spatial pocket, and soon Soldier''s Fortune flew out of its scabbard. He then quietly began practicing his swordplay in the endurance room while Wind focused on reading the books that Fell gave him. ''Moon Above'' and ''Sun Bellow'' were repeated dozens of times, no Energy nor Will were being added to his movements. His body moved fluidly under the room''s bright light; his body flashed from place to place as he executed one form after the other.

    Wind would sometime raise his head from the pile of books in front of him, and he would notice that Fell''s sword would disappear from his field of view from time to time. The only thing left would be a soft light that would slowly dance in front of him. As the young official had gotten used to using Will as energy, he was sure about himself that it wasn''t an application of the Soul System and that it was purely sword skills. Respect appeared on his eyes as he lost himself in his senior brother''s dance, he truly admired him as a cultivator. As the cultivator who introduced him to this grander world. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

    Time flowed and soon Wind finished reading the first book ''Foundational Breathing Technique''. In the end, having worked as an official at a young age meant that he was quite well versed in the way of words. Thus, he had no problem in understanding the subjects that were introduced to him in the book. As if a strange hunger had been awakened by seeing his brother train, he immediately delved in the second book and soon enough he lost himself in the studies of ''Relation between breathing and walking''.

    By the name of the book, he had thought that it was written for children. But soon enough shock began appearing on his face as he understood that he had been too complacent. The more he read, the more he understood the importance of breathing in sync with one''s own movement. Due to the earlier physical training session, he found himself relating to several of the book''s explanation making him fully understand what he was reading. An hour passed, and he had turned the last page of the book before sighing.

    "You truly can''t judge a book by its cover¡­ The author is simply a genius, simplifying those contexts that even children can understand them.", he thought as he closed the book. His hand moved on its own as he picked the last book he had been given.

    As he had already fallen back into his scholar habits, he attacked the third and largest book he was given. ''Synchronizing your breath with your movement'', If the second book was about simplifying complicated subject in a single sentence. Then this one was the complete opposite, details after details about the importance of forming a perfect relationship between breathing and moving were given in this book. As it was also the biggest book, it also took him the longest time from the three as he completely lost track of time.

    He would sometime slap himself in the face while muttering how big of an idiot he had been. While other times he would read the same sentence dozens of times before assimilating its content. Fell had stopped training his swordplay for a while but didn''t stop the young official in his reading mania as he knew that knowledge was equivalent to power. A satisfied smile could be seen on his face as he quietly left the Endurance room, leaving the young official in his own world.

    "Although he does act like a child from time to time. In the end, he truly is an official, what an unparalleled focus.", he thought as he saw Wind eat one book after another.

 Chapter 98 Strange Mystery

    Fell left the Endurance room with silent steps. He closed the door after him and chose a random spot in the hall of the floor where he sat in a lotus pose. His eyes closed as he began cycling skillfully cycling his Heaven and Earth Energy; strings of energy flew through his meridian as he absorbed energy from his pores. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

    Soon enough, his Energy Core, where the energy he refined went turned into a black hole absorbing all of the surrounding energy. His chest could be seen minutely rising before falling down. This simple act of respiration extended to over a minute and he soon seemed completely immobile.

    "I''ve left my training of the three systems on a standpoint ever since I entered the Main District! Time to catch up", he thought as he refined all of the surrounding energy into the purest form he could achieve. Small flowing dots of light, similar to shiny pearls, were attracted to his body in such a way that Fell could be considered their magnet.

    Time flowed under his meditative state, and soon an hour passed but he didn''t move a single inch from his place and kept refining the surrounding energy. At this step, his body contained an extraordinary amount of energy for a first step cultivator, and he didn''t even need to use his will to attract the Energy in his surroundings. The range of his absorption kept growing bigger before encompassing the building where he was.

    At some point, his eyes suddenly opened, and a shiny spark rushed out of his iris. His hand flashed in front of his face as he took out several pills from his spatial pocket.

    "Time to rush to the top of the Energy Condensation Steps!", he exclaimed while throwing the pills in his mouth as if they were candies. The moment the pill entered his mouth and touched his tongue, they immediately turned into a liquid that streamed through his throat rushing straight toward his stomach.

    The fact that the quantity and density of Heaven and Earth energy that coursed through his meridian caused his body''s attraction to energy to rush to the top. His range of absorption broke through his limit and kept growing as he turned into a black hole that consumed every particle of energy. From the building to the street close by, he soon attained a range large enough to consume approximatively ten percent of New Casablanca''s main district''s Heaven and Earth energy.

    Several cultivators noticed the strangeness that was happening. The four noble families'' Elders also took notice of the matter as they swiftly made contact with each other asking if it was their doing. Their hearts trembled when they confirmed that it wasn''t one of them and that only meant one thing. Someone was trying to rush to the peak of the Energy System''s first step, they swiftly entered closed-door cultivation as they knew that their hegemony might be contested if they lost their status as New Casablanca''s strongest cultivator.

    "Who can it be?!", the Golden Family''s Elder asked himself as a youthful face flashed through his mind. Fear appeared in his heart as he knew that the individual he just thought about didn''t have a clean relation with his family.

    He washed the idea out of his mind as he took out the resource he had just traded with their guest. Thankfully he had managed to form a decent relationship with them, or else he might forever stay in the first realm. He thought as he popped an azure colored pellet in his mouth, before closing his eyes to focus on refining the energy that was contained in the medicine.

    The three other Noble families were also actively using the resources they managed to trade with their families'' guests in the hope of attaining another breakthrough. Normally they had an agreement between them to not rush through their cultivation, their common goal was for them to breakthrough in a natural manner. But the abnormality they felt had scared them thus they decided that they couldn''t wait anymore.

    Fell was completely oblivious to what was happening. If he knew that his current cultivation session had forced the Noble Families'' Elder into training, he would have understood much more on the Main District''s situation. About their insecurities as the individual in the top of the cities'' food chain. But he couldn''t care less as his goal wasn''t set on a small city like this one, ever since he saw the painting in Battle Center his mind had a clear goal.

 Chapter 99 Mystery Solved

    Wind turned another page for the last time, and not even a minute after that he got up from his sitting position. His joints popped as his limbs moved left and right to relieve the tension that accumulated on his body during the city. As soon as his mind refocused on his surroundings, he noticed Fell''s absence.

    His eyebrow rose as he didn''t notice his senior brother leave the room. He didn''t think too much about it as his shoulder dropped before, he began stepping toward the door. As he advanced toward the exit door his heart shook as a strange sensation spread through his body. As if something was trying to rush out of his body, and the more he approached the door the stronger the sensation got.

    He focused his will with difficulty on his body in the hope to detect what the problem was. Although he was still new to cultivation, he did manage to get slightly used to his Soul power during Fell''s absence. Soon enough he noticed the crux of the problem, by focusing his will around his body he managed to vaguely notice that his veins contained small shiny dots. They were latched around his blood cells and seemed to cycle around his body as long as his heart pumped blood.

    "What the hell is this?!", he exclaimed as he wasn''t aware of those strange things floating around him. "Am I sick?", he thought before denying as he had never heard of a sickness similar to this one.

    His mind ran through several analyses before his eyes flashed with a spark. His sight darted all over the room before stopping on the bottle that he drank.

    "Could it be¡­ This?!", he exclaimed while darting towards the bottle. He crouched and grabbed the empty bottle that was left where he had ended his physical training. He awkwardly controlled his will as he focused on a few droplets that were left at the bottom of the empty bottle. Soon enough he managed to get the answer he was looking for as he found similar shiny dots in the liquid''s droplet.

    "Can it be Energy?", he thought as his mind analyzed the event. "But why do I feel as if the energy in my bloodstream is trying to rush out of my body?", puzzlement took over his face as he couldn''t put an answer on his questioning.

    "Wait, the pulling sensation seems to have receded!", He thought as he looked at his current position. An even more dumbfounded expression appeared on his juvenile face; as he resolved one question after the other, he seemed to encounter even bigger mysteries.

    Frustration took over his mind as he knew that he was inches away from finding the truth. A few minutes passed, and the young official lost himself in his pondering his hand looked at the ceiling while his hand massed his temples. Then as he felt the tugging in his veins intensify with time, he slapped himself in the face as a spark of truth flashed through his mind. His leg darted toward the exit door while he cursed himself for his stupidity, "The closer I approach the door, the faster my blood circulate in my body!". He thought as he felt his heart pump blood at an abnormal rate.

    His skin reddened as he felt his body''s temperature rise under the strange condition. A moment later he arrived in front of the door before grabbing its handle, he hesitated for a slight second before determination appeared in his mind.

    "Even If I bother brother, I don''t think he will be too mad at me!", he thought as he twisted his wrist opening the door.

    A blinding light flashed in front of him as he lost the usage of his eyes for a slight moment. His hand toward his face as he sheltered his abused irises; his blood circulation broke through the limit as he felt a fire rage through his veins.

    Then his vision refocused, and he managed to see him. His eyes saw his Senior Brother was sitting in the middle of the hall, all around him a sea formed from dots of energy rotated around him before rushing in his body. As soon as he saw the dots, he knew that they were similar in nature to the strange objects he detected in his body. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

    "What the f¡­?!", he thought as he took a step back in haste. He tumbled while trying to back away and fell on his bottom. His mouth opened widely agape. Not from the pain he felt from the fall but from the impression that the scene would leave in his mind. Forever engraved in his spirit.

 Chapter 100 Building Ones Own Energy

    Inside of the training floor''s hall that Fell had rented, a dumbfounded Wind could be seen sitting close to the door. It had been several minutes since he left the room and had seen the Fell''s breakthrough. The young official hadn''t moved his limbs even once ever since he fell down. It wasn''t only his body that was in a shocked state, even his mind had experienced a thunderous bolt and was currently reeling.

    "So this is cultivation¡­", he mumbled under his breath as he saw streams upon streams of energy rush inside of Fell''s body. The young cultivator''s body seems to be similar to a black hole, endlessly absorbing energy as if there was no tomorrow. "Although Senior is talented, he should still be in the first few realms of cultivation!", he thought as he began asking himself when he would attain this might. What Wind didn''t know was that Fell was only a first realm cultivator, it was only due to him cultivating the three main systems that his breakthrough achieved this terrifying might.

    In the end, his cultivation of the three ways didn''t hinder his progress. It was quite the opposite; his body grew to an astonishing rate, making his meridian enlarge and turn into hard rubber bands. Even if the streams of energy coursing through his body savagely smashed down on the walls of his meridian, there was only pain and no actual damage. His soul also came in factor as he could skillfully direct the abnormal amount of Heaven and Earth energy through his body without hindering.

    If what he was doing was attempted by a normal energy cultivator, he would have failed at the first step as his body wouldn''t be capable of sheltering this amount of energy. Cultivating three ways at the same time wasn''t doable by any average cultivator, but whoever succeeded in the first steps could achieve extraordinary success at the breakthrough as his accumulation wouldn''t be the same.

    Time passed and the density of Heaven and Earth energy surrounding Fell grew at an astonishing rate. Wind''s sight was filled with a blinding golden light. His sight was veiled but he could still feel the energy inside of Fell''s body accumulate even more. Although his soul cultivation didn''t attain the point where he didn''t need his eyes, the small amount of energy that coursed through his body served as a medium for him to assess the situation. The faster the energy rotated inside of Fell''s body, the faster it happened in Wind''s body.

    Wind could feel that his muscles and bones were nourished due to the abnormal potency of the energy in their surroundings. Thankfully, he only had a minute amount of energy in his body as he had only consumed a very mild pill. Thus, although the benefits weren''t extraordinary they also couldn''t be ignored. The longer it will take for Fell to achieve his breakthrough, the better Wind''s benefits will be.

    "Stop dozing!", Wind screamed to himself as he closed his mind to focus his will on his own body. A very rough image of his own physique appeared in his mind. There was no flesh around his body, But the bones and muscles could be clearly seen. The shining dots that traveled through his veins appeared in his mind. Time passed and the minute amount of energy gathered into a thin string that sneaked through his veins, it began traveling inside of paths that he wasn''t aware of.

    Suddenly, his eyes opened from an unknown pain. It was as if someone was taking down walls inside of his body; his pores opened and he began sweating huge amounts of perspiration. The trembling continued for a few minutes before he managed to recover his mind. After focusing his will on his body, he immediately understood what was happening.

    "Why the hell is the energy not traveling through my veins anymore!", he asked himself puzzled by the current situation. Another wave of pain traveled through his body, and Wind began trembling again as he felt a fiery burn pierce through his flesh.

    "Arghh!", a muffled sound escaped from his gritted teeth. What he didn''t know was that due to his body being close to Fell, the small amount of energy he had regrouped in his body and had begun preparing his meridian on his own. But he was completely oblivious to this fact as Fell hadn''t explained anything on the energy system. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

    Fear appeared in his heart as he didn''t know what was happening, and every few minutes, waves of pain would appear all over his body as the small energy string pierced through his flesh. Wind could only grit his teeth in this situation as his body seems to weaken every time he felt the piercing pain in his flesh. Under this state, he soon lost track of time and lost himself in a cycle of pain and recovery.

    In the beginning, the waves came every few minutes before stopping. This gave him ample time to recover his breath and get ready for the next attack, but as Fell''s breakthrough advanced on its own the ''attack" rate went up gradually. From every few minutes to every minute, it soon turned into every few seconds.

    Wind''s pore opened every time the waves of pains appeared, and he soon didn''t have any more perspiration to evacuate. But it didn''t mean that nothing was rejected out of his body as a strange mixture of darkened blood rushed out of his body every time the energy string excavated a new tunnel.

    Hopefully for him, although he felt physically and mentally feeble. He still felt that what was happening to him was befitting to a pie falling from the sky. Thus, he only gritted his teeth in patience and didn''t try to stop the current situation. Thankfully he didn''t attempt it as the process of forming meridians was an important step for cultivators, a step that couldn''t be stopped as it would cut any further development.

 Chapter 101 Building Ones Own Energy Part Two

    Fell''s heart rose high and down as his whole body breathed the surrounding energy. His opened up pores helped him suck the attracted energy from his surroundings. He was aware that Wind was close by, but didn''t have the time to care about him as he could feel that he was close from breaking the bottleneck. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

    His meridians were filled to the brim with Heaven and Earth energy, on the contrary, his Dantian kept absorbing all the energy without any sign that it was going to stop. The little golden parasite in his Dantian could be heard chirping as it gluttonously absorbed whatever he sent there. The strange eggshell on its surrounding pulsed in sync with Fell''s heartbeat. Time passed and the soft light that came from the parasitic golden egg grew to become a blinding light. Every time it pulsed, a blinding beam of light would illuminate Fell''s meridian.

    If he wasn''t already sitting in the middle of the pool of energy streams, anyone could have seen the golden color appear under his skin.

    Time passed under this state, and soon enough a change happened inside of his Dantian. Sounds of glass breaking resounded in his mind, and cracks began showing on the surface of the golden parasite eggshell. The moment the shell began breaking down, clouds made their appearance in New Casablanca''s sky. Under the influence of the density of Heaven and Earth energy, the clouds'' innate nature experience an abstruse change and a tinge of gold appeared in them.

    The strange phenomenon was seen by a few nearby passersby, but none of them had the idea to record the scene. Their mind was probably shaken too much by the fast happening changes. Nonetheless, it wasn''t the case for the noble families that were already paying attention to the streets close to Fell, and immediately noticed the current change in the sky.

    "What the hell!?", though a guard from the golden family as he raised his neck to gaze at the sky. He moved quickly toward another guard and slapped his co-worker in the face. "Wake up!", he screamed on top of his lungs as his hand slapped twice in a row.

    "Whaa..WHAT!?", his friend got up from his nap in haste and swiftly grabbed his weapon. Seeing that no enemy was surrounding them, he dropped his arms after a few seconds and looked spitefully at the man that woke him up. "Joking like this¡­ Fuck you John!", he exclaimed while raising his middle finger toward his friend.

    Another slap traveled through the air, and swiftly smacked the side of his face. His eyes grew wide and veins popped all over his face as he readied himself to beat the shit out of the guard who slapped him. But he didn''t do so as he saw his friend point toward the sky; his eyes followed his friend''s hand and he stopped for a few seconds squinting his eyes. Then his body shook as both of them darted toward their office to call their family elders.

    This scene happened all over New Casablanca, and the news quickly spread between the cultivator that an ominous phenomenon was happening in the middle of the city. Although the majority of the citizens weren''t cultivators, there was no need to cultivate to know the danger that was accumulating inside of the nearby thunderstorm.

    However to the families that had cultivators, and to the otherworldly guest cultivators that were staying with them, The thunderstorm had a whole different meaning as they fully knew that it was caused by a breakthrough. Moreover, it wasn''t any common breakthrough, but a second realm cultivators'' breakthrough. It was well known throughout the universe that cultivators could cause godly phenomenons such as this one.

    Those guests didn''t wait for long to contact their own clans as they had been told to contact any major information to their general quarter. Before Fell had even the time to finish his breakthrough, news about it flew out of the Earth in the direction of the vast universe.

    But the juvenile cultivator from the Core was completely oblivious to this matter as he was fully focused on the current task. He was focused on cycling vast amount of energy streams, and his mental faculties didn''t allow him to focus on anything else. The amount he was controlling vastly differed from everything he had dealt with, and any slight mistake could cause his death. The energy inside his body could backfire and cause him to blow out, the energy he would release would make a few blocks nearby disappear from the face of the Earth in an instant.

    Although the current breakthrough represented danger, it also meant that if he succeeded, the benefits he would reap would be worth the danger. His demonic ascension would cause him to put himself in the peak of the first realm, and with enough time he would develop enough might to be on par with half-step second realm cultivators. The potential gains completely outweighed the danger; his experience in New Casablanca and his fights in Battle League made him understand that cultivation was all about guts. He was someone who fully trusted in his instincts as it has saved him many times in the New Casablanca''s Core.

    Time ticked as he refined streams upon streams of Heaven and Earth energy, and as time passed, cracks kept appearing on the golden shell in his Dantian. From a single line that only extended on its surface to thousand upon thousand of lines forming an intricate array, soon enough the golden eggshell seemed to be on the verge of breaking open.

    In the sky, the clouds circled infinitely as if they followed Fell''s refinement. As time had passed, the tinge of gold spread in the center of the clouds spread through them giving them a holy feel. Then a single bolt of lightning, immaculate golden, escaped from it and pierced straight through the roof of the training building where Fell was.

 Chapter 102 Building Ones Own Energy Part Three

    The golden lightning bolt filled with a potent essence of Heaven and Earth energy disappeared the moment it hit the roof of the building where Fell currently cultivated. The next moment, it pierced through several floors and instantly appeared on top of Fell''s sitting figure. Fell instantly felt the pressure surrounding him, sparks appeared in a one-meter radius around him and the air crackled around him. He opened in eyes in an instant and spotted the dangerous phenomenon.

    Time seemed to stop right before the golden lightning bolt seemed to pierce through Fell''s head, his heart tightened in his chest as he made his utmost in braving the current tribulation. It didn''t take him much effort to clear his mind from the negative thought as he had already readied himself for death the moment he began his breakthrough.

    "Come!", he smiled as his eyes opened in a split second and locked on the lightning bolt in the air. His eyes were calm in front of heaven''s assault, and a slight smile crept on his juvenile face.

    The next moment the lightning bolt made contact with his head and the whole room turned into a sublimation of light. His body trembled from the shock as he felt the lightning bolt course through his body. The air around him boomed and a powerful shock wave washed the large hall. The space in the large hall was ravaged by the shock wave as dangerous air current appeared all over it.

    Wind felt the change happen in the room and the next moment his body hit by an air wave, and he found himself projected through the large hall. His body flew through the room at breakneck speed before hitting the wall behind him. A muffled scream escaped from his lips as he felt his internal organ move during his body''s propulsion; a strange metallic taste appeared in his mouth and horrid smells of burned skin and fabric assaulted his noses.

    "What the hell is happening?!", he thought as he felt his consciousness slip into darkness, "Good luck brother¡­". He thought as his body turned limp; his mind and body had already been wasted by the anterior training and with the tempering he had gone through due to Fell''s own breakthrough. The damage he had taken during the throw was the straw that broke the camel''s back, thus rendering him temporally disabled.

    But that didn''t change anything to Fell''s breakthrough as Wind didn''t have any use in it. Fell could sense the lightning bolt rush through his meridian in the direction of his Dantian. The walls of his energy paths were burned by the hazardous lightning filled with Heaven and Earth energy, but Fell couldn''t quit anymore at this point. And the only option he had was to grit his teeth as failure mean the end of his cultivation path in the best case; or death in the worst case. Thus the juvenile cultivator from the Core could only brace his will in front of the horrid pain that traveled through his body.

    The energy from the lightning bolt first ravaged his meridian, then as it traveled toward his Dantian part of the energy dissipated toward the rest of his body. He felt his innards cook under the extreme temperature that emanated from the hazardous lightning bolt. As for his flesh and bones, although he experienced some damage, the fact that he was also a body cultivator made his own physique strong enough to shoulder the pain. But it wasn''t the same for the insides of his body; his innard and nervous system were taking damages that they had never faced before.

    His brain was assaulted by the enormous amount of pain information, and his body couldn''t stop shaking under it. He had only absorbed the lightning bolt for a few instants but his body had already taken more damage than he had ever taken in his whole life. It was one of the few times that he felt that he was facing up most destruction, and this time his opponent was heaven itself. Thankfully the lightning didn''t only contain a destructive force, but it was also filled with its counterpart. Every place in Fell''s body where the lightning had passed through would begin recovering at an incredible speed; burned flesh and innards swiftly regrow into stronger and healthier organs. Due to the potency of Heaven and Earth energy, the healing was as strong as the hazardous energy contained in the lightning bolt. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

    Fell sensed the change happen to his body causing him to be slightly relieved. But he didn''t put down his mental defense as he knew that the worst had yet to come, his senses locked on the lightning bolt could clearly see that the hazardous energy was closing the gap with his Dantian in seconds. He knew that the damage to one''s Dantian wasn''t the same as with meridians, one could live and cultivate with a partially damaged meridian. But a destructed Dantian only meant the complete severing of one''s cultivation road.

    Apprehension filled his mind as a scene of his time as a cultivator flashed through his memory. "The time might have been short¡­ But having control on your own path is quite fun!", a slight smile crooked on his face as he saw the lightning bolt enter through the door of his Dantian. A crazed expression appeared on his face, a vein popped on his eyes making them glow red in the middle of the golden lighted room. "Don''t disappoint me golden parasite!", he gritted his teeth as his bet couldn''t be undone anymore.

    As soon as the potent lightning bolt stepped inside of his Dantian, a joyful chirp resounded from it and the golden eggshell''s crack extended all over its surface in an instant. It only seemed that the thing inside it needed to slightly press on the eggshell to break it, and that was what happened. A small golden colored tail, with crisscrossing intricate lines on it, slapped the eggshell apart.

 Chapter 103 Building Ones Own Energy Part Four

    The moment the eggshell disappeared into powder revealing the creature inside, Fell sensed an extreme sense of kinship toward the creature that had grown inside his Dantian. He couldn''t exactly explain the feeling in that split second of a moment, but he knew that both his life and the creature''s own life essence were part of the same roots. An inexplicable link that could be severed neither by space nor time. The creature slowly revealed itself as its tail slapped the eggshell out of its way; soft shining scales could be seen over the creature''s body. The next moment the golden parasite blinked, disappearing from Fell''s senses in a single moment. Shock appeared on Fell''s face as he sensed the hazardous golden lightning disappearance. The dangerous lightning bolt wasn''t anywhere on his body, and as he extended his senses in his surroundings he was surprised to find nothing in the large hall. His eyebrows rose as he saw Wind''s battered figure lingering close to a wall. The impact could be clearly seen as he left a slight impact on the wall he had been sent into. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

    "Crap¡­ I should have been safer.", he thought before focusing back on the task. He focused his senses on the inexplicable link that existed between him and the golden parasite, and soon enough he managed to find the newborn. The golden parasite had left its shell, and it flew straight under the sea of clouds in the sky of New Casablanca. The newborn energy-based life form looked tenderly at the cloud filled with Heaven and Earth energy and released several chirps in a row as if asking for food from its mother. The creature''s soft watery eyes were firmly locked on the cloud, and a small forked tongue could be seen flashing out of its small mouth.

    Then the little creature''s mouth opened, and a terrifying suction made its appearance in the sky of the New Casablanca. Everybody who has been paying attention to this matter saw the appearance of the black hole like suction. The air current turned visible under the compression of the air, and the Heaven and Earth energy that filled the clouds was sucked out of the cloud in an instant. It was as if the little creature had a straw that was made for sucking Spatial Energy. In a few breaths, the potency of the Heaven and Earth energy in the clouds was reduced to less than half of what it was earlier.

    Joyful chirps were released from its little mouth as it lost itself in enjoying its first meal; the bright scales on its petite body glowed as the little parasite sucked on the cloud in front of it. As the potency of Heaven and Earth energy was being reduced, it fully plunged into the sea of cloud and began swimming in the middle of them. Fell didn''t have anyone to see the scene but he could feel that the little parasite was being strengthened at a fast rate. He could especially feel the potency of Heaven and Earth energy in his surroundings diminish at a ridiculous speed. "What a glutton¡­", he thought as he didn''t expect that the little snake wouldn''t leave him any energy for his breakthrough.

    "Guess it''ll be for next time¡­", he thought as he used the leftover energy to fill his Dantian. In the end, he never had the opportunity to store energy in his Dantian as the golden parasite would immediately absorb anything that passed close by. He sat back on the floor after checking Wind''s condition, then began absorbing the leftover Heaven and Earth energy that was leftover in the hall. Thin streams of energy made their way toward him and entered his body through his lung and pores; the streams of energy then passed through his enlarged meridian and began cycling inside of his energy paths.

    "Although due to the golden parasite, my dantian is still in a very nascent state, my meridian had served as my energy storage due to that. I''m pretty sure that I''m one of the rare cases that had to go through that¡­ But I''m also pretty sure that there aren''t many energy cultivators with meridian that through this much tempering at an early state in their cultivation journey.", he assessed his current situation while making the energy cycle through his meridian several times in a row.

    Time passed quietly under his focused state and a few minutes after, he faced the first problem that was caused by his odd condition. His enlarged meridian caused him to need much more energy than a first realm cultivator needed to access, and sadly he had already used the last pill that was made to help with a breakthrough. He was sure that those pills had been left for him to break through to the second realm of cultivation and weren''t supposed to be used in the first realm Energy Condensation.

    A pitiful look washed over his serious face as he began thinking about the clouds in the sky of New Casablanca. After a few seconds of thought, his head jerked right and left as he threw the idea out of his mind, "Definitely not fighting against a newborn for food¡­". But he knew that he had no chance to win an absorption contest with the little golden parasite. It had been shown several times in the past that the glutton couldn''t be challenged when it came to his terrifying suction strength. And he had even used it as a weapon on several occasions; thus he could only take his time and clean up the leftover energy in the room. At least he had gotten his Dantian back and didn''t need to store his energy in his meridian anymore.

    Having cleared up his thought process he continued his job of cycling the energy in his meridian. Soon enough, a pure and refined energy stream was running through his energy path. A satisfied look appeared on his face as he skillfully began making it dash toward his Dantian. He sighed joyfully as he could finally begin building his journey as an energy cultivator.

 Chapter 104 Building Ones Own Energy Part Five

    As Fell focused on building up the base of his dantian''s foundation, the golden little snake was cheerfully swimming in the middle of the sea of clouds. Time passed quietly as both of them absorbed Heaven and Earth energy. Soon enough, Fell noticed a difference in his meridians. He had been cycling energy in his newly tempered energy path and had noticed a minor difference in the stream of refined energy that coursed through his meridians. The change was very subtle, but he noticed that his energy seemed to possess a slight source of lightning in its core. Noticing the change, he refined a strand of energy to its utmost potency and proceeded to send it to the tip of his fingers. That was when he noticed the second change.

    The energy that always seemed to be encompassed in his body and that was never capable of leaving his body finally took its first step in the world outside. His eyebrows roses as he felt the space surrounding his fingers fluctuate, a small lightning zap escaped from his index finger and the temperature rose slightly. A tingly feeling flooded his hand as the energy was fluctuating and transforming into lightning. His fingers flashed as he attempted to poke the tempered steel based floor. To his great surprise, he didn''t even need to come in contact with the floor that he left a deep indent in the sturdy material. His mouth opened as he whistled in surprise, new ideas and applications appeared in his mind and he lost himself in deep thoughts. A few minutes after that, his head twisted towards the roof, "Looks like it''s coming back home.", he jokingly said under his breath. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

    Suddenly, a strange light shone on the ceiling, and the next moment, a darting light made its way towards Fell. It only stopped a few inches in front of his face, giving him the opportunity to finally see how the creature looked like. The first detail he noticed were his watery eyes, a greenish tinge that reminded him of a vast plain he saw in a painting. The creature seemed to look deep in his own eyes. A strange sensation of kinship made his heart thump; his hand moved toward the nascent creature and he touched its supple skin. Soft golden-colored scales filled the creature''s body. A single word formed on his lips as he eyed the creature that shared his energy source with him. "Snake¡­ No!", he exclaimed as he saw two small bumps on the creature''s head. "Dragon?", he thought as he remembered the several images he had seen in his youth. "I''ll call you Little Gold!", he exclaimed while looking deeply into the creature''s eyes.

    The young snake seemed to understand Fell as it joyfully chirped while rubbing its small head on its owner''s hand. "Quite intelligent on top of that!", he assessed as he swiftly understood that Little Gold had fully understood his words. Little Gold released a few more excited chirps before coiling around Fell''s wrist, it had just been born and had been gifted a fairly decent meal. On top of that, its master seemed to be quite kind as he had gladly praised the creature. "It seems that it shares the same cold-blooded habits as snakes.", he judged as he felt Little Gold''s thirst for contact.

    "Want to come back in my Core?", he asked while playfully rubbing Little Gold''s head with his index finger. Chirps! Chirps! Excited noises escaped Little Gold''s mouth as it escaped Fell''s embrace, it hovered in front of him while looking deeply into his eyes before nodding. "Then, come!", he exclaimed while extending his index finger toward the golden snake. The thousands of soft scales on Little Gold lighted themselves in an incandescent light. After a slight flash, the golden snake disappeared from the room in an instant. It had already transited its body into pure energy and was currently dashing inside of Fell''s meridian. Fell felt as if a burning sun was currently destroying his veins. But that wasn''t all, Little Gold''s affinity was lightning, and that caused him to release several shocking bolts insides of Fell''s energy path. Thankfully, his meridians had been partially tempered by the golden lightning bolt that descended earlier. If that hadn''t happened, he would have been under much more pain.

    Little Gold roughly made its way toward Fell''s dantian where it had resided before its birth. During its journey, it caused another round of tempering on Fell''s energy path as it didn''t seem to understand that its master was being shocked by its energy. Thankfully Fell wasn''t afraid of pain, and he knew that this was just a transition to truly being Little Gold''s master. How could he make the creature his own if he couldn''t even shoulder its own energy, he thought while gritting his teeth. Even before he began his cultivation way, he always adhered to the old principle of pain leads to gains. Time passed as Little Gold made several rotations inside of Fell''s energy path, cooking the walls of his meridian to a brim then nourishing it with pure energy. Then suddenly as if it had judged that it was enough, it made its way toward Fell''s dantian.

    "Lightning possesses a tremendous destructive power, but it also seems to possess its own counterpart", he thought while feeling his meridian repair themselves at an astonishing speed. His energy path had been tempered to such a degree that he couldn''t even be considered a first realm cultivator anymore. Lightning was known for being one of the most destructive energy in the universe, any cultivator that had mastered it and made it his own would become a very well-known individual. The way of the elements was closely linked to the energy system, and lightning was well known for being one of the most destructive forces in the world. And today, a youthful cultivator of a random city on Earth had begun making this power his own.

 Chapter 105 From Streams to Rivers

    Inside of the training hall that Fell rented, time passed quietly as Little Gold delved in the embrace of Fell''s dantian. The golden snake shared an inexplicable close link to Fell''s foundation as an energy system cultivator, being equivalent to his own source. A few minutes earlier, the moment it had entered his dantian, it quietly hovered in the void where the golden egg had been and softly released wisps of refined energy.

    As soon as he felt Little Gold release the wisps of lightning-based refined energy Fell immediately understood the creature''s incredible function. It was his Core, similar to the golden core in the Taoist legend, and would serve as his energy storage. No longer did he need to painfully stock his energy in his meridians; Now he could finally send the energy he unearths from space towards Little Gold who would further refine it for his use. Although he was sure that Little Gold had further used, he couldn''t know about it yet and only time could tell him the amazing feats that they can achieve together.

    "Right now, I''m probably at the peak of the first realm when it comes to the Energy System. After today''s session, I should focus on my Soul Cultivation and Body Cultivation. The hardest will be my Body Cultivation as I no longer have any pill for cultivation use.", he thought while feeling the wisps of pure energy that Little Gold released. "As for the Soul System, it will keep progressing with time and I feel that a breakthrough in my Sword Path might help me attain the peak of the first realm. The first step of Soul Cultivation isn''t called Will Sharpening for anything¡­", as he was lost in his thoughts, he noticed that Little Gold was sending smaller and smaller wisps as if it noticed that he wasn''t focused on it.

    "Hey stop being such a stingy bastard Little Gold!", he had been noticing that Little Gold was similar to a stingy merchant. A true niggard that wouldn''t lose in a trade. "I know that you have consumed that golden lightning bolt, I''m not even talking about the cloud filled with Heaven and Earth energy that you probably didn''t miss.", his eyes glowed with a cold light as he began acting chillingly towards Little Gold. He knew that the infant energy life form needed to be thought a lesson as it hadn''t yet been tamed, and he had been feeling that it was quite greedy when it came to absorbing energy. If he only ended up nourishing it while getting the cold shoulder from it, he''d prefer avoiding owning it at all. He would immediately sever his energy path to restart again in the future. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

    Little Gold sent him a mental message as it felt betrayed. At first, it played the pitiful card while telling Fell that there wasn''t much energy there, it even portrayed itself as having gone through a great deal to gather the pitiful amount of energy it had managed to absorb. But Fell knew that all that were just excuses as he had himself went to great lengths to form the energy potent sea of cloud, "Crap, why is it so stingy?!", he thought as he didn''t know whether he should laugh or cry. He had gone to great lengths to help it hatch but he was treated poorly by it.

    Fell snorted coldly before he released his will inwardly, no changes seemed to happen in the exterior. But inside his body, Little Gold began panicking as Fell had filled the entirety of his body with his sharp Will. A sharp will that was nourished with his sword path, making it acquire a dangerous slaughter aura. As Little Gold was only a nascent life form that had never faced danger nor felt fear immediately, it cowered under Fell''s powerful Will. At first, it managed to fight back through fear while putting on a false bravado, but the little infant energy-based life form seemed to forget that it was linked with Fell, thus immediately making him understand the act. Another cold snort escaped from his noses and the pressure instantly peaked, panicked screams escaped from Little Gold''s mouth as it tried to escape from Fell''s dantian. But the poor thing didn''t know that it had already fallen into the young cultivator''s plan.

    "Now now¡­ You don''t want this to end badly, right?", Fell''s own voice resounded through his body. His tone, grim and frightening, had been changed to match to his current actions. Little Gold shivered even more as an image of himself between savagely slaughtered appeared in his mind.

    Fell coldly smirked as his action had attained the result he wanted, his evil laughter sent Little Gold in even bigger stress. Suddenly Little Gold seemed to have had too much, and it was with red eyes that he released a long dragon roar that extended past Fell''s body and even rushed out of the building. Then, a torrent of pure energy was rejected by Little Gold onto Fell''s dantian. His dantian was immediately filled by rivers of pure Heaven and Earth energy. Lightning crackled and clouds filled with Heaven and Earth energy made their appearance inside of his Dantian. Fell was first shaken by the dragon roar that sent his mind tumbling for an instant, then he was close to crying when he saw the torrent of energy that was being released by Little Gold.

    "Crap! I might have pushed him too far!?", he cursed while focusing on directing the excessive amount of energy through his energy path. As he wasn''t sure about being capable of controlling the hazardous energy, he immediately closed his pores and readied himself for the worst.

    "I guess going for broke is also its specialty!", he exclaimed talking about Little Gold, But as soon as it left his mouth, he swiftly regretted his thought as Little Gold released another roar followed by another wave of energy rivers. The potency of Heaven and Earth Energy had grown to the point where it had turned into liquid. Thankfully, Fell had an overgrown meridian or else the first burst of energy released by Little Gold would have caused him to implode.

 Chapter 106 From Streams to Rivers Part Two

    Fell grunted as he felt the tremendous amount of energy wash over his body. The problem wasn''t only with the amount of energy but was more linked to its potency and attribute. His body had never faced Heaven and Earth energy of this degree of purity, neither was he unfazed by the lightning attribute of Little Gold''s refined energy. Not only that, Little Gold had released the energy due to Fell applying pressure thus making it even more haphazard as it should be. In this state, Fell''s body began breaking down at an incredible speed. If Wind had been awake, he would have seen his brother''s skin peel down one layer at a time, normal lightning could already deal quite the amount of damage to Fell''s body. Little Gold''s bolts of lightning were even more dangerous than normal ones as it was powered by potent Heaven and Earth energy.

    "Fucker¡­ You only know extremes!", he cursed the little snake that was in his dantian while feeling his innards cook under the extreme temperatures. Fell turned into an incandescent torch, his burned body released dark fumes, yet he still didn''t open his pores to release the energy as he wouldn''t waste the opportunity. He was one hundred percent sure that he wouldn''t find another opportunity such as this one in the future, and he knew that Little Gold wouldn''t fall for the same trick another time so easily. Plus, if he dared to open his pores Wind would be dead in an instant. Thus, he decided to follow the little snake''s way as he would also go for broke. Either his body would adapt to the extreme pressure that it was facing, or he would end up dying.

    "Qui¡­ Quite the reminder of my first cultivation session¡­", his memory flashed between his pained grunts. His teeth had already shattered under the enormous pressure he was applying on his jaw, and his skin had already dehydrated to such a point that he looked like a black piece of charcoal. Thankfully his will was strong enough to leave him conscious during this state, or else he would have already fallen into darkness due to his body''s state. He was already far from mortality due to him cultivating three systems, yet even with that he quickly noticed that his body wouldn''t adapt fast enough.

    "I need to divert part of this energy into my body, while I will keep cycling the rest through my meridian!", His mind worked at breakneck speed under the enormous pressure he was facing. As soon as he found a way through this calamity, he swiftly began working toward the path of life. He focused part of his will on the raging energy rivers that coursed through his meridian and began attempting to cycle it through his energy pathway. Every time the haphazard energy touched the wall of his meridians, he would feel a sensation akin to branding by lightning causing his body to jolt right and left. Thankfully his meridians had been tempered more than enough to not instantly breakdown due to the raging lightning attribute.

    A cycle of pain was all that awaited Fell in the next few minutes that followed. As time passed, his body stopped shaking due to his muscles having been cooked to a state similar to charcoal. Even in such a desperate state, his will stood still and he tirelessly continued cycling the raging rivers of Heaven and Earth energy through his body. Time passed and he finally saw a slight result to his attempt at survival. Half of the meridians that had been passed through by Little Gold''s potent energy were burned to a crisp. The others had managed to overcome the ordeal and faced a surprising change; the walls of those special meridians had turned golden in color and seemed capable of supporting the lightning attribute in Little Gold''s energy.

    "I can make it through!", this result boosted his moral as he entered a deeply focused state where he would cycle the energy through the meridian that had fully adapted to the haphazard lightning attribute. The circuit was crooked and couldn''t really be called a complete cycle but the effect it produced was more than enough for Fell. Pure wisps of energy escaped through the wall of those meridians toward the rest of his body. Although those were only refined wisps and couldn''t be compared to the rivers of energy that flowed through his meridian, the effect on his dying body was extraordinary and was similar to a torrential rain on a burned forest. Sign of regeneration began appearing on his body, and Fell could finally see the end of the ordeal nearby. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

    At first, his body was slowly healing but the effect Little Gold''s energy was extraordinary. The parts that were healed would stay strong against the rivers of energy that flowed through his body, and the more of Little Gold''s energy he made his own the more his body recovered. Time passed and the burned meridians were completely healed speeding the process even more; his experience in dealing with Little Gold''s lightning attributed energy grew up under the constant practice and he soon felt himself safe enough to sigh.

    Seconds passed and his body began recovering at a speed visible to the naked eyes, the burned to the crisp skin turned into ash that flew in the air surrounding Fell. From sixty percent of burned flesh to fifty, then to forty. It exponentially grew faster until a tornado of ash closed the view on Fell''s body; not even a minute later and a violent air current blew the ashen barrier surrounding Fell''s figure. The juvenile cultivator''s figure appeared in the middle of the large hall, he sat on the cold steel-made floor naked as his clothes had been burned during the dangerous cultivation session.

 Chapter 107 From Streams to Rivers Part Three

    The youth sat naked on the cold steel made floor of the training hall, he sat there with eyes closed as he took pleasure in the joy of survival. Due to the earlier events, he had escaped death''s claws by an inch and had earned himself quite the benefits; his energy cultivation had risen straight to the peak of the first realm. While his cultivation only looked like the peak of the first realm, the quality and quantity of his energy base had risen past the first realm. That wasn''t the only thing he had gained as his body had gone through another round of tempering. Although he wasn''t sure about where he stood in the first realm of the body cultivation system, he knew that he wasn''t far from the peak of body tempering first realm.

    Yet his progress didn''t stop there as he was also experiencing the last rewards he had earned himself. A baptism of law had taken place as soon as he finished cycling the energy that had been thrown up by Little Gold. He wasn''t aware of the reason why it had happened but he wouldn''t waste the golden opportunity as laws were the rules that governed the universe.

    A few minutes earlier, as he was focusing on sending back the tremendous amount of energy that Little Gold had thrown to him. The energy life form golden snake swallowed back the entirety of the refined energy that Fell had cycled through his meridians, yet Little Gold didn''t take back the sea of clouds that were thrown up during the process. Those clouds filled with Heaven and Earth energy, and that had been tempered by heaven''s lightning didn''t disappear in his dantian. They silently hovered in the middle of his spatial pocket that was in dantian, and the second Fell put his sight on them a change began happening in his soul.

    He felt as if his mind had left his body, and an unfeathered sensation took over his soul. Clouds filled the entirety of his field of vision, and the view of the training hall disappeared from his sight. A familiar scene appeared in its stead, a scene that he recognized as soon as it appeared. As soon as his surroundings changed, nostalgia took over his mind and heart as the sky of New Casablanca''s Core appeared in his sight. Before he even had the time to sigh as his heart had missed his home the view change yet another time. What appeared was the sea of clouds that filled Battle League''s tutorial''s phase two ; the clear image stayed for a few seconds in his mind before flashing and disappearing. Then the clouds in his dantian reappeared in their steads. The scenery began cycling for another revolution, New Casablanca''s sky filled with toxic clouds then Battle League''s clouds followed by the clouds in his dantian. His thought process slowed down to a snail''s pace and he began being confused by what was happening to him.

    "Clouds¡­ Why am I being shown sceneries of clouds?", he mumbled under his breath as his eyes opened. Even the colors of his eyes had changed during this state as they turned into a pure milky white color. Fell''s trance had completely shut down his body signals. Clouds were the only things that his brain and mind produced, and as time passed the intensity of the emotions he was feeling grew up. Nostalgia took over his mind when the image of the Core''s filthy sky appeared in his mind. Confidence would take over his heart when he gazed at the sea of clouds that existed in Battle League. Yet he would feel nothing when gazing at the clouds that were in his dantian.

    He questioned himself about his feelings, but no answer would appear in his mind as he felt a veil block his thought process. From a single revolution, he soon felt as if he had seen the sight a thousand times and a strange feeling of eternity took over his mind. He forgot about the injured Wind, about Little Gold. He forgot about New Casablanca''s rich district, about the four noble families. Then, the cycling scenery stopped before appearing at the same time. The Core''s clouds, black and toxic, superposed on the golden-colored cloud of Battle League. The fused scenery then superseded itself on the cloud of his Dantian. He didn''t know why the answer to the strange oddity, yet he didn''t have the sensation of them not being homogeneous. Fell even found that a strange unity existed when the three clouds were put together as if they were always meant to be so. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

    Suddenly his heart thumped, and the sceneries that seemed to be blocked in a single frame of time began moving. The black filthy clouds of the Core silently rotated toward Battle League''s golden clouds, they mixed and danced in the grasp of his dantian''s cloud. "None of them¡­ are real.", a strange hunch appeared in his mind. But he was sure about himself, none of those sceneries he had gazed upon were real.

    His eyes blinked and were shut close, then he opened his eyes again and the pure milky white that colored his iris had disappeared. Yet the feeling of being lost didn''t disappear with them, he pondered on the matter but he was sure about one thing. None of the clouds he had ever gazed on existed. "What is false?", he thought with frowned eyebrows. "What is real?", he thought while fully knowing that he wasn''t qualified to get the answer of his thoughts.

    His hand moved towards the area in the middle of his eyebrows, and he took out clothes from his spatial pocket. While dressing up, he sent his vision toward his dantian and wasn''t surprised when he noticed that the same changes seemed to happen in his dantian.

    In the middle of the pure milky white clouds that had taken place in his dantian, were the two black and golden clouds of the sceneries he had seen.

 Chapter 108 From Streams to Rivers Part Four

    A day had passed ever since Fell''s breakthrough had happened, no major change seemed to have happened to his life. Wind had been healed with one of the few pills he had left, thankfully he had never needed them as his body had always been good at recovering from injuries. The young official seemed to have forgotten the event of Fell''s breakthrough and didn''t question his senior brother about that day''s event. Yet a change had happened in Wind''s psyche as he never questioned his brother''s directive again; his progress when it comes to breathing technique was astonishing as he went his own way to do some research on the subject.

    The Four Noble families stood silent during the day that followed, and Fell''s life in the main district was resumed to the pace he had been following before. But he was aware that the baptism of law was still going on inside of his dantian. A seed had taken birth in his Energy Core, and he didn''t know how long it would take for him to germinate. Little Gold had stayed silent ever since the past event and seemed to have turned into Fell''s internal energy storage. He knew that he had been too rough on the little creature as it had been ignoring him for the past few days; but he didn''t pay too much attention to it as the link between them was still there.

    Days quietly passed and the past event where thrown in the back of Fell''s mind, he resumed his experiences on blood essence while helping Wind in his foundational training. The young official kept breaking his records and the training floor''s facilities showed their values in the following session. Fell began pushing Wind to his limit; changing the room''s temperature to turn it into a fiery hell or the opposite with chilling cold. He even began changing the pressure of the room while dabbling with the moisture, making Wind completely unable to sweat. Yet the young official didn''t seem to be bothered by hardship and kept training every day in the hellish atmosphere. Aided with Fell''s pure internal energy, he didn''t fear death at all and gave his all in every training session.

    "Blood Essence changes every time the individual faces a near-death experience¡­", he thought while analyzing the data the War Assist AI gave him. "His training''s pace is already fast, although I need the data to progress with my studies in Blood Essence¡­ I can''t speed up the training more as Wind''s mind will break down.", he knew that although the young official had a strong will, every individual had a breaking point. Wind might think that Fell was pushing him to his limits in every training session and that could be shown by his after training state. Only Fell knew that everything was calculated to put Wind in the best situation for a breakthrough. If he went a little bit easier, no result would be shown. Yet if he went too harsh on him, he would end up with a dead friend.

    Days passed as Wind got used to his habit, and his body went through a complete change. Every day before going to the training, he would spend minutes of admirations in front of the bathroom''s mirror causing Fell to slap him several times after the young official''s constant nagging. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

    "Hey Bro, didn''t I get super ripped?"

    "Look at those abs!"

    "I think my genetics aren''t that bad!"

    Those type of comment annoyed Fell beyond frustration, thankfully he would take pleasure in beating the crap out of Wind every time the young official would go too far in his eccentricity. Yet it was as if Wind was asking for more beating as his donkey memory made him forget the beatings overnight. Fell didn''t know whether to laugh or cry as Wind hadn''t even begun his strength training, thus from an evolution standpoint, his body was far from having changed. That being said, in reality, Wind''s body had experienced massive changes in a short period of time. His breathing had turned deep and calm, and he now could run the one hundred laps at default setting with no problem. Although Fell didn''t want him to turn complacent or narcissistic, he couldn''t help but agree that Wind''s body had definitely toned down. Far from the weak and frail official body he had before, yet he was still in the realm of mortality as Fell didn''t have enough resources to help him temper his body. That being said, Wind was, in the end, a cultivator that cultivated in the soul way, and Fell didn''t know if straying from the initial goal was a good idea.

    Today was a special day, as Wind would finally stop his endurance training to begin his focus on building up strength. As usual, they left the apartment after filling their stomachs with a nutritious meal. Wind and Fell quietly walked toward the training facility, their figures passed through the spotless streets of New Casablanca''s main district. Minutes later, their frames appeared in front of the place they had hanged around the last weeks. The training facilities were called Golden Factories and were obviously owned by the renowned Golden Family. Fell never really payed attention to this matter and had even broken through in the middle of their building, causing quite the large-scale phenomenon to appear in the middle of the street. Thankfully the facilities didn''t seem to get any directive to blacklist Fell from their business, giving him the opportunity to continue his research with Wind.

    Both youngsters entered through the large door frame and appeared inside of the first floor''s large hall. To their left was the usual receptionist, a twenty-something years old charming woman that was always focused on the screen in front of her. She only rarely raised her head once in a while to check the customers'' needs or to verify their identification cards.

 Chapter 109 From Streams to Rivers Part Five

    Today, it happened like the last few days where Fell and Wind came to Golden Factory. Fell would advance towards the young receptionist, flash his card with the number that represented the floor he rented in front of her, and continue his steps toward the elevator. Behind him, Wind would silently follow behind steps. But today, an idea appeared in the young official''s mind. As Fell walked past the pretty receptionist, Wind stopped in front of the receptionist and coughed in an attempt to grab her attention. Bolstered by his changed body, he executed his most dashing smile and his eyes glowed as he passionately looked at the pretty lady in front of him. With hands rested on the marble counter he opened his lips and ushered in a sweet voice. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

    "When do you finish your shift my lady?", he was neither too fast nor too slow. He even seems to have added part of his soul cultivation power into his voice as he postured into a dashing Don Juan. Fell''s eyebrows rose into a knot and fury took over his chest as he had gotten too used to Wind''s odd antics.

    The young receptionist raised her head toward Wind with a blank face, yet when she heard Wind''s voice her heart thumped in her chest and her cheeks slightly reddened. She didn''t respond for a few seconds as she seemed to lose herself in Wind''s pure black eyes.

    Fell saw the scene and was dumbfounded when he saw Wind use his cultivation to achieve his means, even if he did it subconsciously. A cold snort escaped from his noses as his legs began tapping on the ground, he hesitated on beating the shit out of him before he managed to calm down. He decided, in the end, to leave him to do as pleases; hoping that it might stop his endless bullshit if he found a way to empty his burning passion. But he wouldn''t let him have it the easy way as he swiftly released his will upon Wind and the receptionist, washing off any residue of Wind''s soul power around them. Then without waiting for Wind, he turned around a walked toward the elevator.

    "You have three minutes Wind, Don''t be late.", he exclaimed in a neutral tone. Fell didn''t feel like forcing Wind into following him. In the worst-case scenario, he''ll just have a punching bag for a few minutes. Feeling as if he had made the right choice, he entered the elevator and pressed the dial of the floor he had rented. He soon arrived in the large hall where he achieved his breakthrough, and immediately began walking towards the comprehension room. The door smoothly opened in front of him and he began searching for a few learning materials for Wind''s strength training. He already had a few ideas about the course that he would take the young official through, but he wanted to further his understanding of mortal training. Time ticked and the minutes he left for Wind passed, and contrary to his expectations, the youth entered the training floor with a large beaming smile.

    "Guess I''m quite handsome.", he whispered with a loud enough voice intending to get heard by Fell. Who in turn ignored his comment as he had a better idea for punishment? He turned towards Wind and coughed to grab his attention, then he threw several books towards him.

    "Read them and understand the contents, it will serve during the entirety of your strength training.", Wind heard Fell''s unhurried voice while doing his best in catching the books that were thrown toward him. He managed to grab one of them, but the others escaped his grasp. He looked at the book in his hands-on top of it were written ''Nervous System and its relations with Building Strength'' in silver-colored letters. As he was already used to Fell''s antics of building up the theory to complement practice. He quietly grabbed the three other books on the floor and walked towards a side of the large hall. He chose a random place to sit on and focused on the learning material at his disposal.

    A few seconds after he opened the first book in his hands, he raised his head toward Fell and exclaimed in a calm voice. "Leave me ten minutes and I''ll be done with them.", his calm voice entered Fell''s ear and made him understand that the joking Wind had disappeared and what replaced him was the hardened young official. A small grin appeared on Fell''s face as he raised a thumb towards Wind while thinking, "Guess he learned the crux of this method.".

    "You won''t need me today.", Fell added as he began leaving the training floor. Had Wind acted differently and should he have tried training without any first-hand knowledge; Fell would have stayed here with him. But this random act of Wind had shown Fell that he was turning more and more independent in his training sessions. Before leaving, he quickly went to the observation room and logged the War Assist AI on the computer there to records all of the necessary data. The rest would be up to Wind as Fell had other things to do.

    "Let''s see his resolve! I might share with him the Soul Cultivation Mantra that Anzar gave me if his results are decent.", he thought as he entered the elevator. The electronic tunes resounded as it began descending through the floors, and a few seconds after he pressed the dial, he arrived in the reception hall. "I still don''t know if I can share with him Anzar''s teaching but I feel that he can be trustworthy.", he thought while thinking about the past weeks they spent together. "Although he is quite the eccentric one, who isn''t in this shit hole of a city!", he thought as he left the training facility. He traversed the hall and made eye contact with the quiet receptionist and noticed that her cheeks had turned red from embarrassment. He mindlessly nodded towards her as he stepped through the exit door.

    "Battle League here I''m coming!"

 Chapter 110 Righteous Jealousy Part One

    Swish! Battle Center''s magnetic doors opened widely in front of him. His eyes were calm, yet a strange glow appeared in them as he was excited about his future fights.

    "Here he is!", he heard someone exclaim loudly, but he didn''t think too much about it as he kept walking through the last hall. He felt dozens of eyes marked on his figure, his eyebrows rose slightly as he pondered about why this. was happening His sight traveled all over the room; he noticed that everyone was looking at him with blazing eyes as if he had killed their mother.

    "Yeah that''s the bastard.", he heard one of them speak in a loud enough voice for him to hear. Then his eyes lit up as he noticed a familiar figure in a corner of the large hall. Tahlya was rested with her back against the wall, her eyes were focused on him and an annoyed expression could be noticed in her pretty face. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

    He stepped forward in her direction and began traversing the hall in the middle of the strange scene. "Why are they focused on me¡­", he thought as he didn''t interact with anyone in New Casablanca''s Battle Center. He only came here once and had stayed locked inside the tutorial room for days. Yet the second time he came dozens of eyes were rived on him.

    "He dares to come again!", one of them said while gnashing his teeth.

    "How dare he¡­ That lucky child is wasting her time!"

    A few seconds later he had crossed half the distance between him and Tahlya, and he had managed to numb his senses from the surroundings comments. Suddenly, an arm appeared from his left blocking his walk, he turned his neck to the left and saw the man who interposed himself in his road.

    "Stop there buddy.", he said with a smile that was far from being friendly. The man''s smile reminded Fell of those cocky bastards in the Core. He had seen someone with the same smile stab a passerby in the back the next second without any hesitation.

    "Why are you blocking me?", Fell asked with a calm tone. Although he was a hot-blooded youth, he still felt that acting without understanding the next party''s motive might lead to further problems. He already has somewhat of a rough understanding of why they were acting like this, but he needed to confirm it before acting.

    The smiling man in front of him seemed satisfied as Fell had stopped in his track. He rubbed his hand while positioning himself between Fell and Tahlya before opening his mouth. "You see, the poor girl behind¡­", he said while pointing toward Tahlya. "She had been waiting for you for the last few days. Every day she would just stand there waiting for her fighter.", he spoke succinctly without wasting any breath. He paused for a second while watching Fell''s face for any minute reaction; he knew that he had the advantage as the mob was with him. This was an opportunity he had noticed a few days, and today he noticed that it was finally time to reap it.

    "To put it shortly, you don''t deserve her.", as he finished his words a smug face appeared on his face while the crowd was incensed by his speech.

    "Yeah you''re completely right, brother! Fuck off you fucking trash!"

    "You''ve been wasting her time, what a talentless fuck!"

    "Out! Out! Out! Out!". The mob''s turbulent voices synced into one powerful sound wave that resounded through the large hall.

    Outside of the large group of individuals, a few customers watched the scene from the sides. It wasn''t rare for such occurrence to happen as there wasn''t an equal amount of Battle Maidens compared to the number of players. Players grouping together to pressure an individual into quitting would at least give them a chance to scrap what was leftover. And most players knew who Tahlya was, yet rare were the ones who actually knew her as they only knew the surface that she let out.

    "Isn''t the guy whose avatar is named Leffer?", one of the guys looking from the side asked his friend as he pointed toward the man who was blocking Fell.

    His friend nodded as he replied. "Yeah, he is quite decent when it comes to his ranking in this Battle Center. Wait let me check.", he said before checking his wrist. "Leffer¡­ Ranked sixty. That does explain why he is trying to gain Tahlya''s support as his battle maiden."

    The smiling man stood still in front of Fell enjoying what he had done. He felt as if the crowd was encouraging him in his act, he crossed his arms and a large righteous smile was plastered on his face. His plan had been progressing quite well, and he only needed to stand his ground and he would make the youngster in front of him run away. Using the crowd''s power to his advantage, he could make himself the victor with no further moves. His smug smile ran all over his face, and his hand moved to shoo Fell away. "You heard the crowd? Leave!", Leffer said while raising his voice to follow the crowd around him before putting crossing his arms again.

    Fell calmly looked at the man named Leffer that stood before him. Time passed under the constant noise from the crowd, he gazed at the man''s eyes in front of him before uttering a single word. "Trash.", his voice although quiet seemed to completely overpower the crowd and was heard by everyone in the large hall. Silence took over for a few second while Leffer looked dumbfounded toward the black-haired youth in front of him.

    "Isn''t he aware that I have the crowd with me?", he thought as he was slightly angered by the insult. Then as if time resumed its rules; the crowd screamed even louder than before hurling dozens of insults toward Fell.

    "What is going on here!?"

 Chapter 111 Righteous Jealousy Part Two

    Inside of New Casablanca''s Battle Center, a middle-aged man had just entered the reception that was filled with yelling and howling. "Can someone explain what is going on here?", he asked with a stern face. As soon as he was noticed by the crowd, the noise instantly died down and heavy respect appeared on the face of everyone. Fell quietly looked at the man as he had yet to meet any higher up of Battle League. Leffer was still standing in front of him showing a posture that he wasn''t backing down any time soon. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

    Silence permeated the large hall as the only things that resounded were the middle-aged man''s steps. He calmly walked towards the group of players with a frown on his face. He had mid-long grey hair that showed that he had quite the seniority, and his face was riddled with markings from the passing of time, yet still showed a potent strength. His eyes, on the other side, were bright and filled with wisdom even though he was frowning heavily. He was known through this Battle Center for being particularly benevolent.

    "Can someone explain to me the crux of this matter?", he asked with a neutral voice. Yet nobody answered his call as time passed while he waited for an answer.

    Leffer saw this as an other opportunity, yet he hesitated as he knew that he couldn''t easily fool the middle-aged man that interrupted the scene. But as he had noticed that the youth in front of him wasn''t good at defending himself, he braced himself and advanced forward.

    "Mister Chairman, My name is Leffer and I ask for forgiveness!", as he spoke, his hand slammed on his chest and he bowed slightly before continuing. "What happened here is due to that man''s actions.", he spoke while pointing a finger towards Fell. "He left his battle maiden without contacting her nor telling her that he wasn''t coming. Due to that, our dear Tahlya had to wait every single day for him in the hope that he comes yet he failed her for days and days."

    As Tahlya heard her name coming out of Leffer''s lips, anger flashed on her eyes for a single second before she concealed it. She stood there, her back rested against a wall, watching the scene unravel in front of her without an ounce of emotion. She knew that the moment the chairman made his appearance the situation would be solved quickly, she was one hundred percent sure that Fell''s potential to this battle center outweighs by far what Leffer could make them gain. She wasn''t afraid at all, not even for a moment, that something bad might happen to Fell, and she heavily doubted that what he showed her was the extent of his capacities. This explained why she didn''t bother to participate in the matter, although she was the crux of the problem. Due to celebrating the last time he was here, she forgot to take his contact information hence couldn''t call him or message him. The only solution she found was waiting for him every day in the hall, but her act quickly gathered attention from the player base and every day there would be people waiting with her.

    "Do you think did is how our battle maiden should be treated? Please enlighten us Mister Chairman!?", He bowed after expressing himself. His speech left quite a few players dumbfounded as they didn''t know the matter and had just been watching from the side.

    "So it is like this¡­", one of those players from the side ushered whit a hand on his jaw. "Don''t get fooled by what he is saying.", exclaimed one woman that was on his left. "No matter should be judged without knowing both sides'' story. What Leffer is doing isn''t very honest as he is using the crowd to overpower that youth¡­ Yet if what he is saying is right, this truly isn''t a way to treat your battle maiden.". As she finished speaking, the man on her left was going to respond to what she said to thank her but shut his lips as he saw that the chairman was going to speak.

    "I see¡­", two words left his mouth but nothing followed and he stood there while pondering. His eyes gazed at Fell and he was surprised to see that the black-haired youth was nonchalant in front of the situation. Interest flashed in his mind as a slight smile appeared on his slightly wrinkled face before he exclaimed with a hidden playful tone.

    "What do you propose then?", his voice traveled through the hall due to the silence that permeated the large space. Shock appeared on a few spectators as they didn''t expect the chairman to ask for Leffer''s advice. If he was a top ranker from New Casablanca''s Battle Center then it wouldn''t be a surprise, but Leffer was only ranked around the top fifty and was far from even attaining the top 10 000 of Earth''s ranking. Usually, these kinds of people didn''t have the opportunity to even talk with the chairman, yet here he was asking him what a good course of action for this matter would be.

    Leffer on the other was trembling as he had even garnered the chairman''s attention. He was standing on a double-edged sword where he could either gain or lose from this matter. If he left the current situation as it was without using it to his advantage, his opportunistic personality would make him regret it every day, even 10 years later while lying in bed trying to sleep, he would remember this opportunity that he didn''t take. His eyes glowed and he clapped his hand in front of him before bowing again.

    "Forgive this young one for what he is going to say Mister Chairman. But I sincerely believe that this man should be banned from this Battle Center, his act isn''t to be taken lightly as it would cause our battle maiden to lose face.", as his head was down during his speech due to his bow. Nobody could notice the large beaming smile that was plastered on his face.

 Chapter 112 Righteous Jealousy Part Three

    "Did he seriously ask that!?", one of the bystanders exclaimed as his eyes opened from shock. "Rare are the penalties that cause an expulsion!", answered his friend that was on his left.

    The middle-aged chairman looked deeply in Leffer''s eyes while mumbling a few indecipherable words. Time seemed to stop as he pondered for a few breaths before he began laughing. "Oh Oh Oh. This is quite the big punishment!", he spoke few words but those were enough to show that he hadn''t particularly agreed with Leffer''s proposal.

    "Then how about you engage in a duel inside the fighting arena? The winner is the one who decides!", his proposal was simple yet it immediately caused great havoc when it was heard by the bystanders. Although the decision the chairman took seemed to go in favor with Fell, it really wasn''t as Fell hadn''t broken any rule in the first place.

    "What a cheap old man¡­", someone ushered in a low tone. A few heads nodded as they didn''t understand why he was supporting Leffer in his cheap attempt. "I heard that he has a fetish about watching people fight!", another voice whispered a rumor it had heard. "Yeah, how else could he propose something this unfair?", a few other brazen voices rose a little bit. Those sounds traveled all the way to the chairman''s ear who''s face changed slightly under the strange comment. "Pieces of shit¡­", he thought as he kept looking at Leffer. "This is all his fault fucking kid who''s making noise for no goddamn reason.", he kept emptying his heart in his mind as he waited with an amiable face.

    Leffer looked in surprise at the chairman as he didn''t expect such a solution. He looked at Fell before a smile grew larger on his face, then he looked back at the chairman. "This kid can''t be too strong, he might be talented but I have much more in-game experience when it comes to fighting in Battle League!", he thought for a second before swiftly opening his lips to respond to the chairman''s proposal.

    "I agree!"

    The chairman nodded toward Leffer before turning his neck towards Fell to see his response. But a few breaths passed and the black-haired youth didn''t seem to give any answer causing him to ask him. "Fell? Is that your name right. What do you think about my proposal?", he spoke with a soft tone as a mysterious smile was drawn on his wrinkled face. His eyes glowed with playfulness as he waited for Fell''s answer.

    Fell nodded while gazing at the middle-aged chairman''s eyes, before stepping forward toward Leffer. "So I just need to beat the crap out of him, right?", his finger pointed toward Leffer as he began walking toward him in a calm stride. As he began stepping toward him Leffer felt a strange coldness surround him, under this state of fear he tried to back up but his feet didn''t answer his call.

    "Wh¡­what are you doing!", Leffer managed to utter with difficulty under his panicked state.

    "Isn''t it just a fight contest? Why wait to be inside the game? Let''s brawl!", Fell exclaimed. The coldness in his voice showed that he wasn''t joking and everyone was surprised that he wasn''t backing down.

    "Right here. Right now!", as he finished speaking his leg stomped the ground and the last meter that separated them was instantly crossed. Leffer screamed while putting his arm in front of him in an attempt to defend himself, his eyes closed from the rush of adrenaline that hit his body while his head crawled inside his neck.

    As he waited for the blow to hit him, he opened his eyes surprised that he didn''t receive any attack. He turned around and saw Fell was continuing walking while ignoring him. Shame appeared on Leffer''s face as his mind reassessed what just happened. His reputation was over as a lot of the game''s player base was present in the hall, and he knew that such a matter wouldn''t take too long before being spread quickly. Anger at himself flashed in his mind as he began shaking from the denseness of his emotional turmoil. "Come back here! Speed means nothing, you''re just afraid of fighting me!", his voice was raised to the limit under this state and his face was red from the shame and anger that was eating his ego. Anger at himself for having shown everyone his weak side, and shame for having been bought down by a child in front of a large group of spectators.

    "Fighting you? It''s already over.", Fell answered without turning back. "The moment you closed your eyes like a panicked rabbit your faith was already over. If I wanted to, I could have killed you a dozen times in that second."

    "Isn''t he bragging a bit too much?", a bystander blurted as he doubted what Fell had told. Yet he couldn''t help but agree with him as he knew that closing your eyes in a fight only meant death. High were the number of underhanded methods that had for a goal to shut down the enemy''s vision. Throwing sand to their eyes or blinding them; those were techniques that could change the flow of the fight in a split second. Yet in this current situation, Leffer had closed his eyes in fear, thus it wasn''t farfetched to say that Fell had enough time to kill him.

    "Woaah, he''s quite pitiful!", said one battle maiden to a player while pointing the trembling Leffer with her finger.

    "Fine!", screamed Leffer with a broken voice that sounded similar to broken glass. "If you want to fight, let''s fight!", he screamed while darting toward Fell''s back. As he ran toward Fell his hand skillfully grabbed a thin rod from his pocket; it was a taser in the form of a thin rod. It had an extension mechanism that made it very popular due to its transportability.

 Chapter 113 Righteous Jealousy Part Four

    "Lesson one, if you want to attack someone from behind don''t scream it all around the place."

    Fell said with a calm tone as he swiftly turned around. His arm blinked as it disappeared from the sight of the bystander. The next moment, it appeared on Leffer''s face. Most of them didn''t even have the time to see the short action as they only noticed a few teeth fly up high in the air before dropping on the floor, and a trail of crimson red blood was sprayed on the ground close to Fell. The slap resounded through the room and the act was accentuated due to the silence that followed next. A few seconds passed and just as everybody''s minds came back to their bodies, another slap hurled toward Leffer face and a few other teeth flew through the hall. A pained grunt and the sound of a body hitting the ground traveled the hall. Leffer could be seen on the cold floor. His hands were placed on his bleeding mouth and tears ran across his face as he lost his mind to the pain. Between the space of his fingers, the bystanders could see vivid red marks that were turning purple.

    "How strong is he¡­?", managed to mumble a bystander.

    "He broke a few teeth just with a slap?!", exclaimed another man. "How the hell is he this strong? Is he¡­ a cultivator!?", mumbled one of the players inside the crowd. He was part of the crowd that had been cursing Fell with Leffer, and here he was trembling standing not more than a meter from Fell. He eyed the black-haired youth as if he was a monster; his legs trembled from the fear that was taking his mind and he even tried to step back but his legs weren''t responding to him.

    The chairman stood there close to the scene, his eyes reflected the glimpse from the light on the ceiling while his legs seemed to have taken root on the floor. Everyone thought that he was fuming beyond rage as he was well known for having a cold face when anger took upon his soul. Yet the lashing and punishment never came, and he even had a large smile on his face. He nodded with satisfaction before turning around and began leaving the scene. As he approached the elevator under the dumbfounded eyes of the crowd; he turned around for a split second towards Tahlya and exclaimed in a clearly happy tone.

    "Tahlya, can you please come to my office.", he ordered as he entered the elevator. As the elevator''s door began closing, he added with a laugh. "Take Fell with you. I still didn''t get the pleasure to converse with him."

    As the elevator''s door shut down he clenched his fist and thought with a beaming smile on his slightly aged face.

    "Another chip in New Casablanca''s Battle Center! He might add to our chance of winning the next tournament!", he thought as excitement took over his mind. He wasn''t far from jumping around from the sudden happiness. He was aware that Fell was talented as the manager had told him how he was faring in the game. Yet what he had just saw served to reaffirm his thoughts, the more he thought the more he found Fell similar to him. "If only he hadn''t left¡­ We would have had a better chance of winning the next tournament". As the joy died down and he was reminded of that individual, he sighed while his face seemed to age by a few years.

    "It was for the better good.", he thought as he felt the elevator stop in his ascension. He stepped outside with a mind filled with reminiscence of the past. He pondered on how things would be if life hadn''t taken that turn. He passed through a few corridors while he was flooded with memories from the past, in the end, he only managed to empty his thoughts with a sigh. Whatever happened in that time wasn''t something he could control neither could he change anything to it, forcing choices on someone was never a good idea. He only hoped that things would be different now and that history wouldn''t repeat itself again.

    After a minute or two of walking, he finally arrived in front of his office. He stepped inside and sat on his chair, his troubled mind was gone and he managed to empty his mind from the past event. As he waited for Fell, he remembered the events that just happened in the reception hall with a smirk on his lips. "That kid is quite brazen.", he laughed as the image of Fell''s movements appeared in his mind. "Although he looks like he has quite the temper¡­ He definitely is the real deal!". As he waited for them to arrive in his office, he pressed a button on his desk and a screen flashed in front of him. "Although I heard about his achievement in the tutorial, I had yet to take a look at how he fares in-game.", he mumbled while accessing the file where the records were saved.

    "If I''m not wrong, it is this one.", he exclaimed before launching the tape. As the image appeared, and the video began he noticed something. "Incredible¡­", he immediately compared it with another user''s tutorial and swiftly noticed that Fell''s record was the shortest by far. That was his first shock, but it was far from being the only one as the rest of the video was filled with sequences that sent his mind tumbling. As the number of opponents in front of Fell grew, the calmer the chairman''s facial expression turned. If Fell had only been somewhat talented, it wouldn''t have been a problem. But this tape clearly showed the level of progress that Fell was capable of achieving in a short time; in the end, he could only come up with a conclusion. One that could be confirmed with what had happened in the hall not long ago.

 Chapter 114 Righteous Jealousy Part Five

    "He''s a cultivator!", he mumbled while fumbling with his beard. "Which noble family is he from?", he thought as the youth from the noble families appeared in his mind. But he quickly dismissed it as his features were too different from them, he also crossed the majority of New Casablanca''s lesser noble families as they also had ways to develop cultivators. "Well I''ll just ask him about his background, No worries about that¡­", he thought as he began turning fond of the youth on the screen. "He does have quite the style¡­", he exclaimed as he saw the abnormal level of the opponents in front of Fell. "He seems to be using the tutorial as a training session", he assessed as he saw the youth''s movement turns sharper after every execution. "He''s having quite the fun there. Judging from his smile, he truly is made for the battlefield¡­".

    "Yet even with this much capabilities, he didn''t immediately move into action against Leffer earlier.", he thought about how Fell had acted when confronted with Leffer''s acting. "This youth is a gem, even I would have slapped that bastard much earlier if he had caused me such a scene."

    "I need to do my utmost in helping in his accommodation as he might mark our Battle Center''s history.", the further he analyzed Fell. The more he came to the conclusion that he wasn''t someone they could afford to control, and neither should they as they simply weren''t qualified. Although Battle League was a game that mimicked cultivator''s fight, in the end, it was mainly a medium to develop martial art''s culture through the universe. Most Battle Center''s weren''t even accommodated with a cultivator to oversee the business, and only the top tier centers that were directly under the headquarters in that place could be said to have power.

    Yet the game was thriving with success, and it was well known through its player base that it was filled opportunities. Ascending dragons weren''t uncommon, and lots of individuals had later developed into talented cultivators. Although Fell was already one, the chairman judged that the youth still had a lot to gain by playing the game. Even if the learning materials hidden in the game weren''t taken into account; just the opportunity of fighting with equal opponents was an opportunity that every cultivator yearned for.

    He attentively watched the full record without missing a single frame, and by the time he finished watching Fell clearing the entirety of the tutorial''s wave, He heard steps in the corridor near his office. He closed the screen and readied himself as he had told them to come to his office. A few seconds after that, he saw Tahlya passing through the door of his office followed by Fell. His eyes glowed as he watched the young cultivator that would help him rise his Battle Center''s fame. He swiftly got up to greet the two of them.

    "Hello. I don''t know if Tahlya told you who I was. But my name is Spinters, I''m the current chairman of New Casablanca''s Battle Center.", he presented himself with an amiable smile. "Please take a seat.", he added before sitting behind his desk. Fell nodded toward the middle-aged man and didn''t think for a split second before sitting on a couch to his left. "Please Tahlya can you take out that bottle.", he exclaimed while swiftly turning toward Fell. Tahlya rolled her eyes at the chairman before moving toward one of the many drawers in his office. She knew what bottle he was talking about, and although she was aware of Fell''s talent she didn''t think that he was worth it.

    "You''re name is Fell right? Please excuse me for what happened down there. I didn''t want to look too biased, but it didn''t seem like you needed my help.", he added with a laugh. Tahlya fished out the bottle from one of the drawer and came back with two glasses on her left hand. Spinters quietly emptied a place on his desk, he grabbed the bottle and his eyes glowed as he fell in reminiscence. "This is quite a pricey bottle, I think it can''t even be found in New Casablanca as it had been a gift from the higher-ups.", he added with his sight never leaving the bottle that was tenderly gripped by his hands.

    He then turned toward Fell and pressed a mechanism near the top of the bottle. A sound similar to wheels smoothly clashing was released from the top of the bottle, and the bottle''s cap swiftly slid to the left leaving the bottle open. As soon as the jar''s content was released in the air, a tender perfume hit the nostrils of the three individuals in the room. Fell''s eyebrows rose from surprise as he felt something peculiar from the bottle; something similar to the pill he had been given by Anzar.

    Chairman Spinters noticed Fell''s reaction and his guess were solidified, he hummed the liquor''s perfume twice before laughing. "You recognize this beauty?", he asked Fell who in turn pondered on the familiarity he felt from the alcohol in the bottle. "It contains quite the amount of medicinal energy¡­", Fell opened his lips as he explained his though. "You''re right.", responded Spinters as his grin extended past his cheek. "But not just that, although this bottle contains the same medicinal energy that can be found in cultivator''s pill. Those herbs that have been used in its concoction are beyond old, and could even be called ancient plants.", he exclaimed as he turned passionate while talking about the exceptional beverage.

    "Although it won''t produce progress to a strong cultivator. It can help cleanse the body and mind of weaker ones. As for mortals, this bottle produces the same effect as the elixir of the fountain of youth!", he added as his voice shivered slightly. "You want to know how we got this?", he asked Fell who in turn simply nodded. "We achieve top twenty in Battle League last tournament, it was part of several other rewards!"

 Chapter 115 Mass Advancement Part One

    "Filthy riches", Fell thought as his eyes opened when he heard Spinters'' words. They hadn''t even won the tournament, and they had been offered quite valuable rewards. His rounded eyes glowed from surprise as he couldn''t help but think about the monetary resources that Battle League''s company must have amassed through the years, or maybe they were already filthy rich. His eyes flashed with clear greed that didn''t go unnoticed by Spinters and Tahlya''s sight, but they didn''t think too much about it as they were also surprised when they learned more about the company behind Battle League. Not only was their goal grand, they even had the backers and resources to achieve it. Not even talking about Earth''s own tournament, if Fell was aware of the resources available in the biggest contest of Battle League in the universe. He would have probably fainted from excitement.

    "He seems to be quite the greedy one¡­ Well, those are the easiest to deal with!", he thought as he saw Fell''s reaction. With a swift movement from his hand, the chairman filled one of the glasses with the jar''s content. The liquid was so potent that a milky cloud formed on the surface of the liquid, and a powerful smell extended all over the chairman''s office. Tahlya''s cheeks reddened after a few sniffs, and she felt her mind turn slightly sluggish. She didn''t even take a sip from the liquid, but just from smelling its perfume she felt as if she was in the midst of intoxication. As for the chairman, when the odor hit his nostril he closed his eyes and let himself fall in the bliss of the liquid. "Powerful!", thought Fell as he saw the liquid''s effect. Now that he could see the liquid through the transparent glass, he immediately noticed the potent Heaven and Earth energy that was contained in the liquor.

    "This isn''t something that should be drunk by mortals", he thought as he grabbed the glass that Tahlya was giving him. He approached the glass to his face and gazed at the milky clouds that circled in the surface of the liquid. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, part of the clouds separated in streams that passed through his nostrils. As soon as they entered his body, he was immediately shocked by the potency of the alcohol''s energy. "Definitely not made for mortals.", he thought as he opened his eyes while his body circled the energy that coursed through his meridians. His lips approached the glass and he took a sip; his mind was instantly sent tumbling from the taste of the alcohol. He swore that never in his life had he tasted something this potent, and he felt as if his taste buds were under a powerful drug that amplified his senses. "Wine filled with heaven and earth energy.", he said after swallowing a mouthful of the liquid.

    "You''re right.", exclaimed Chairman Spinters as he followed Fell in his act. He dipped his lips in the glass and swallowed a small sip of the energy-filled wine. He trembled slightly under the effect of the liquid, and his eyelash trembled for a few seconds before it calmed down. "This effect is similar. No, dozens of times more powerful than Earth''s drugs!", he thought as he saw the effect.

    "Not only does it cleanse the body due to its medicinal components¡­ But the effect the alcohol has on the mind is amplified beyond what it should normally be¡­", he thought while feeling the liquor effect on his mind. "Truly a saint''s beverage. Cleansing the body and the soul with a single sip", Fell blurted while moving his wrist to make the liquid twirl inside of the glass.

    He closed his mind and focused on his meridian, and he was shocked to notice that the energy was pure and didn''t have any affinity. Making it join his energy base without any problem. Usually, cultivators needed to refine the energy through their meridian to make it their own. The process was long and would usually be important as it served as a mental branding on the heaven and earth energy, making it the cultivator''s own energy. And sometimes, trouble could arise due to the energy being of a specific element, Little Gold''s lightning element Heaven and Earth energy were a clear example of this. Thankfully in Fell''s case, his energy wasn''t part of any element and swiftly assimilated the affinities Little Gold had. In other cases, mixing two energy with repulsive elements might cause death; Yet in some legends in the universe, it was said that some cultivators had done the impossible such as refining energy that had the same property as water yet burned like fire.

    "You''re quite the knowledgeable youth.", exclaimed Spinters as he felt his mind reawaken from the high the liquor gave his mind. He gazed at Fell with a smile before continuing, "Knowledge that shouldn''t be accessible to a nobody. And you clearly aren''t a nobody¡­ You are a cultivator, right?", he added while looking straight at Fell''s eyes as if to gaze at his soul.

    Fell didn''t seem to be surprised at the question and simply nodded at the Chairman. Tahlya''s eyes, on the contrary, were nearly falling out of their orbits, and her hand trembled slightly as she couldn''t control her shock. "How didn''t I notice??", she thought as she remembered the night where they celebrated his wins. "Are you a native to this city?", asked Spinters while taking another sip of the liquor.

    Fell nodded yet another time before adding, "I''m from the Core.". His sentence was short but the length of their shock was beyond what he had expected, he could see that their reactions were different from when he had told them that he was a cultivator. And although it was for a split second, he noticed fear and incomprehension on their face but that was hidden quickly. He didn''t take it at heart as he knew that their fears weren''t unfounded.

 Chapter 116 Mass Advancement Part Two

    Chairman Spinters noticed that their reaction might have caused some discomfort for Fell. His mouth opened and a chuckle escaped as he exclaimed with a smile on his lips, "No wonder!". Fell was surprised at his words but didn''t ask more about the matter. Time passed quietly after that, and after exchanging a few mundane talks with the chairman. Fell downed the rest of the liquor in his glass, he sighed blissfully as he enjoyed his last sip before looking at Spinter with a serious face.

    "You shouldn''t drink too much of this.", he said while pointing toward the bottle. "To mortals, it can turn into the most powerful drug.", finishing his words and his drink he got up from the couch clearly expressing his departure.

    "Wise words Fell, but it''s not like I can binge on this every day.", Spinters laughed out the advice without further thought.

    Tahlya followed Fell''s steps while he was in the midst of leaving the room, as he arrived at the door he exclaimed without turning back. "You never know! With me here, you might win more of those.", as he finished his sentence he disappeared in the corridor.

    Spinters'' eyes opened from the surprise caused by what he heard before slapping his thigh. He laughed on top of his lungs before turning toward Tahlya, "I quite like this kid. Please do take care of him.". He added before getting from his chair to walk Tahlya out of his office. He greeted them one last time before closing the door behind him.

    As he came back to his desk, he grabbed the bottle and went toward a drawer to put the liquor in safety. But he stopped in his movement and pondered for a split second before going back to his desk. He tilted the bottle and served himself another glass. "Well, he did say that he was going to win me more of this! I hope he''s not lying.", he thought with blissful eyes while licking his salivating lips.

    Fell walked through the dimly lighted corridor followed closely by Tahlya; the young battle maiden quietly watched his back with her thoughts filled with what had happened in the chairman''s office. She knew that what happened in the reception hall wasn''t a big matter, and when they were summoned in his office that it wasn''t going to be to talk about that. "He is a cultivator¡­", as she saw his back she felt as if she was an idiot. Here she was trying to manipulate him without being aware of what he was capable off, thankfully she didn''t do anything yet.

    "What''s going on Tahlya?", asked Fell as he felt that something was wrong with his battle maiden. "Feeling depressed due to my absence?", he joked around to lighten the mood. Yet she didn''t react to his attempt at conversation, in fact, she didn''t even hear him as she was too focused on her own thoughts.

    A serious face took over on Fell''s juvenile face, and he stopped trying to talk during the short walk. At some point, he had to stop in front of the elevator, and as he was turning around he felt Tahlya hustle into him. Her petite body rebounded on his figure and she lost her balance, as he saw her fall towards, the floor he extended his hand and grabbed her. His eyes crossed her sight and she finally came to her senses; her cheeks became bright red and she trembled for a moment as shame took over her mind. Fell couldn''t help but find her cute when she acted like that, and he was reminded of his last time in New Casablanca''s Battle Center.

    "This reminds me when you were drunk last time.", he said as a grin cracked on his lips. "It''s weird although as this time I could swear you didn''t touch any alcohol.", he added as he helped her get up. "Hey. Now that''s the kind of look I know!", he continued as he felt a murderous glare lock on his face. "Calm down, calm down¡­", he begged as he began receiving punches on his face. He quickly helped her get on her feet before releasing her from his grasp, and he swiftly took a step back as he wasn''t enjoying receiving a one sided beating.

    Tahlya''s heart bumped through her chest, and she felt as if she couldn''t contain herself when she looked at the youth in front of her. She stomped on the ground a few times to empty her anger, before sighing and regaining her calm self. Fell whistled as he couldn''t help but praise how fast she managed to control her feelings. His arms opened as he made a gesture for her to enter the elevator''s first, even if he teased her he remembered that he should still act in a gentlemanly manner. Those weren''t his principle but those were the only advice he had got from Uncle Moha when it came to women. Though he wasn''t sure if he could trust the big man''s word as he wasn''t known for his skills with the opposite gender. He could only rely on them as he was one of the only people that gave him advice.

    Tahlya rolled her eyes at Fell''s awkward act and without making him wait, she hopped first on the elevator unaware of her own smile that crossed her cherry lips. Fell followed suit as she pressed a pair of dials on the screen of the elevator. As he felt that they were descending, Fell couldn''t help but blurt, "Am I going to the same room as last time?".

    She smiled as she thought that he was finally showing his true face. "He is probably thinking that simple tutorial room isn''t worth his esteemed title of cultivator¡­", she thought as she looked at him.

    "No. The chairman has made preparations for you.", she explained as she watched minutely for any distinctive reaction on Fell''s face. "You will be lodged in the floor of this battle center''s Top Ranker!".

 Chapter 117 Mass Advancement Part Three

    Time passed and after dozens of minutes, Fell was standing in front of an emerald-colored door. He gazed at the craftsmanship of the door and his hand traced all over the ornaments. The more he watched it, the more he became impressed by the number of details that were on the door. Some might think it was just a simple door, but strangely he couldn''t take his eyes out of the metallic object as he quite liked the shape of it. On his side, Tahlya ignored him as it wasn''t the first time she saw him act like this, she simply stood by the side and waited. After a few minutes, she noticed that Fell had finished, she swiped the magnetic card on a line that could be seen on the door and a green light appeared in the middle of the construct.

    After dozens of mechanical clicks resounded through the silent corridor, the door opened in front of them revealing the large room''s interior. The first thing he saw was the floor that looked similar to wood, but as he stepped on it he immediately knew that the density of the material wasn''t wood. Or it wasn''t any kind of wood he had seen during his life. While he was focused on it, he noticed traces of heaven and earth energy on the material. Although the traces were sparse and couldn''t be theoretically used to cultivate, he was sure that the material wasn''t the source of the energy that was still around.

    As he advanced a little bit inside the large room. The first thing that came to his view was the large bed on the corner, followed by what seemed to be another bed. Yet this bed wasn''t made of soft material and he thought that it wouldn''t be very comfortable to sleep on it. "Why are there two beds?", he mumbled under his breath but his sentence still entered Tahlya''s ears. She cracked a laugh before explaining. "That''s not a bed Fell. Remember the thing you used in the tutorial room?", she asked in a helpless tone.

    "You mean the cerebral link that is used to log in the game?", he asked as his eyes glowed from excitement. The difference between the two was like Heaven and Earth, he didn''t even manage to recognize the object as they had nothing similar. If the one in the tutorial room was similar to a rectangular steel plate, then this one had much more details and reminded Fell of the hover pods that the noble families flew on.

    Yet those weren''t the only detail as the room was fully equipped with a kitchen, and there was even a bathroom in case he needed to clean himself and relax. He sighed at the money Battle League''s owner invested and couldn''t help but imagine if there were better rooms in the other battle centers.

    "I''ll meditate a little bit before logging in.", he exclaimed as he jumped on the bed. "By the way, is there a way to only get matched with the user of this battle center?", he asked as an idea popped in his mind.

    "This option does exist.", Tahlya responded as she sat on the couch. "Why would you need that feature? I mean, don''t you already have access to better opponents in the tutorial''s second phase?", she asked while finding it odd.

    "I want to warm up before fighting those monsters.", he said without further explanation. As he closed his eyes, another idea flashed in his brain. His hand moved toward his eyebrows and focused slightly. Space fluctuated in front of him and he took out a piece of paper and a pencil from his spatial pocket. He wrote a sentence on the paper before giving it to Tahlya, he added as he saw her confusion. "Please do me this favor?", he said before closing his eyes and focusing his senses on his body.

    Not even a split second after that he heard a scream pierce through his ears, but he acted as if he heard nothing and simply kept his eyes closed. After a few minutes of rambling and howling, Tahlya finally left the room after stomping the ground several times. After he heard the door close and felt that she wasn''t there anymore, he sighed as he told himself that women were definitely crazy creatures. "I knew that she would react that way, but it''s the fastest way I found to gather opponent¡­", he thought while thinking about what happened in the reception hall. "They wanted Tahlya. Well, I''ll let them have that opportunity. But it will in the end, it still only depends on their own skills.", he thought before focusing on meditating.

    Soon enough he fell in a deep meditative state, and he lost track of his surroundings due to his will focusing too much on his own body. The room disappeared from his thoughts, followed by the battle center where he stood then it was the whole city that disappeared. Nothing mattered anymore and the only thing that mattered to his mind was his revolving spirit. Minutes passed then it was hours before he was finally woken up by a noise in the large room.

    He opened his eyes and gazed at the large emerald-colored door, he pondered on who it might be as he doubted that Tahlya would come back this soon. Then he saw a piece of paper slide under the door, a surprised look appeared on his face and he recognized the piece of paper he gave Tahlya. He jumped from his bed as his body''s articulation produced popping sound, before swiftly traversing the room in a split second. He crouched and grabbed the piece of paper before looking at the door as he felt that the person was still standing there, he shook his head before opening to read the paper.

    It was the message he had written. The only difference was another message written with a blood-red marker.

 Chapter 118 Mass Advancement Part Four

    "Don''t lose you freaking prick!"

    A grin cracked on his lips as he knew that Tahlya had done what he had asked. He was aware that she might brood him over this matter, yet that was the only fast solution he had found to his problem. He didn''t know if the users would be tempted by money, and as a part of them were tempted by his battle maiden, he might as well offer that.

    He crossed the room and walked towards the cerebral link that was near the bed and laid on top of it. As soon as he rested his head on it, lights appeared on the deep lines that were over the object and soon enough his vision blacked out. However, that didn''t last long as Fell soon saw the view that he had missed. Thousands upon thousands of mountains stood in front of his eyes, and a gargantuan sea of clouds circled between that. Only the peaks of the mountains could be seen, and even those were hidden by a mist that emanated from the clouds. He closed his eyes enjoying the fresh air that ran across his face and breathed deeply before opening his eyes back.

    "The difference might be minute, but this cerebral link and the one in the tutorial room are definitely different. The replication of reality might not be 100% but it also isn''t the 99% that I had tested.", as he felt the minute difference in the sensations that were sent to his mind through his avatar''s body.

    He asked himself if there was a better cerebral link. Although being closer to the one hundred percent was already a big deal, he thought that a simulation that could fully replicate the laws of the universe would be quite an amazing tool. He still couldn''t help but imagine what kind of technology would be needed for it to work.

    His hand moved towards his face as he sent two slaps hurling to his cheeks. "Time to get to work!", he thought before executing his plan. He swiftly summoned the game''s interface and changed his setting to matchmaking with the local user of his Battle Center. And without a second thought, he launched the search for an opponent. He didn''t know if the news had already made it through the user base of his battle center but he didn''t have any more time to waste. The search didn''t make him wait at all as he was immediately matched with an opponent.

    "User Stroke had been matched with PeerlessUnderHeaven.", as soon as his eyes crossed the interface''s message. His vision blurred and he disappeared from the mountain peak. After he left the mountain, a laugh resounded through the silent hill before a whisper echoed through the empty valley.

    Not even a minute after that Fell''s frame reappeared on the fighting platform, his face was a mixture of disappointment and surprise. "Weak¡­ They are too weak.", he muttered as he went through the matchmaking setting. He dabbled through the several options making it so that the system would begin automatically searching for an opponent the moment his match ends. As soon as he finished, he swiftly executed the search again before disappearing the next second.

    Inside of the battle center of New Casablanca, the news spread like wildfire and the majority of players were interested in battling Fell. Their goal for doing so differed from an individual to another, but all who had fought him lost. And even with that loss, they had acquired something much more important. A personal lesson about their own flaws and weakness. This was the plan that Fell came up with to help chairman Spinters with his battle center, although a single fight might not help them turn into peerless players, he could still show them the right path, as for the rest that only depended on themselves.

    Currently Fell was fighting a pole user named Pobelar, according to the system, he was ranked 50th in New Casablanca''s battle center. Fell couldn''t help but compliment the guy''s defensive capabilities as he used his staff with quite the dexterity. Fell advanced forward stepping inside of Pobelar''s range of attack who immediately hurled dozens of piercing thrusts toward his torso. "He isn''t trying to aim for the head¡­ Is it because he isn''t trusting his skills or is it to focus more on defense?", he pondered as twisted his waist to evade the blows. Pobelar''s forehead was filled with sweat as he had already sent out hundreds of moves in a few seconds, while Fell only dodged and wasted minimal energy when it came to his consumption. "He probably knows that he won''t make it if it turns into a drawn fight.", he thought as he evaded several other blows before entering his own range of attack.

    Pobelar tried to step back while swiping his staff in front of him, but Fell on jumped on top of it. As the staff passed under his legs; his feet touched the staff and he used it as a means to propel himself forward. "You waste too much energy on defense.", Pobelar heard a cold voice in his back before his vision blacked out.

    It had already been his tenth match and he was starting to face the top forty users of his battle center. He couldn''t help but sigh at the difference of level between them and the users of the tutorial''s second phase. The time they had been playing the game was completely different, and even with that, they were far for being a match for them. "Let''s see if those in the top ten are worth something¡­", he thought as another opponent appeared in front of him.

    The avatar in front of him was a woman with crimson colored hair; his sight crossed the woman''s eyes for a split second before returning a polite smile. He saw a bladed weapon hanging on her wrist, as she took her weapon out of the scabbard, he noticed that it was a thin one edged saber.

 Chapter 119 Mass Advancement Part Five

    "User CrimsonMoon has been defeated"

    Another interface appeared in front of him after he exchanged dozen of moves with the woman opposing him. As a fellow blade user, it had only taken him a few moves to determine what her flaws were. After explaining to her what she had to do next, he swiftly ended the fight with a sharp palm swipe to the neck.

    Time flowed, and Fell fought diverse opponents one after the other. The fight rarely extended to more than a minute, and rumors about his strength soon propagated through the battle center. The top rankers noticed him rather quickly, and most of them logged into the game as they waited for the system to match them with Fell.

    Most of them didn''t trust what people told them as they could also beat those ranked under them, but one fact made them interested in Fell. In all of his fights, he left one sentence that usually depicted the flaws of his opponent. "Does he think he is some kind of teacher?" thought Charles as he got up from his bed. He had just received news from his friend that a fiend had appeared in the game. Fell''s avatar, Stroke, had left a deep impression on his opponents, and no one had even come close to dealing a sliver of damage to his body. This wasn''t just a one-sided experience as he also benefited from the fights. The fact that he fought diverse types of weapon users made him grow bit by bit in combat. Not only that, but the more he thought about it, the more he found that the experience was a training of some sort.

    Although one fight wouldn''t be making a difference, he was aware if they added to hundreds, then the benefits would be more than noticeable. Moreover, even if it was true that he was gaining experience from the quick fights he was chaining, it wasn''t his primary goal. He had thought about it when Chairman Spinters told him about the tournament. Fell didn''t like owing people and as he didn''t know if he would stay in New Casablanca, he decided that helping the user develop into decent fighter would be much better in the long run. A collective breakthrough would be worth much more to the battle center than a single individual.

    That was his main goal in fighting the users of this battle center. Time passed quickly as he fought dozens of users and finally was matched with someone from the top twenty. The user was ranked 13. His avatar was named Shroum, Fell had been intrigued as soon as he appeared in the fighting platform as he didn''t expect someone to use a ranged weapon in Battle League. In the man''s back was a large rifle and on his waist, holstered in each side of his body, two shining revolvers. As soon as the fight started, Shroum took out his rifle and began shooting at Fell''s figure while backing away. Although his accuracy couldn''t be called great when moving, he managed to send most of the bullet howling toward Fell''s torso. Not even a few seconds after that, he managed to get to a safe distance of fifty meters from Fell. Fell quietly watched the man''s tactics while evading the dozens of flying bullets that were following his body.

    Fell couldn''t help but be impressed by Shroum''s tactic in front of him. Although he didn''t find it difficult to evade the man''s assault, advancing was, on the other hand, quite complicated. Shroum was still getting further away and barraging Fell, preventing any steps forward. Yet that wasn''t the worst in their fight. A few moments later, Shroum decided he was in a safe enough position and stopped moving. His accuracy turned into a deadly asset, his bullets would hurl straight toward Fell''s face. The distance between them made him capable of fully focusing on his aim. Fell whistled in surprise as the man''s tactics were deadly. He was sure that if anyone left Shroum the chance to back away from a close quarter fight, then it was over. A bullet would have pierced through their skull''s avatar the moment he would have stopped spraying bullets to secure his retreat.

    "I can also do that¡­", thought Fell as he stomped on the ground evading a bullet that was shot in an attempt to read his movements. During the evasive motion, his hand pierced through the fighting arena''s tiles. His arm applied some strength, and he took out the tile entirely from the floor, with the same movement he managed to completely stop his motion and stood behind the object. Without further thought, his hand flashed and he took out several pieces of rocks as he armed himself. He stood calmly behind the defenses he had created while gazing at the stones he had picked up. His memory flashed with reminiscence as he thought about the Core. During those times, he was used to throwing an object as a mean of protection; he remembered once when a maddened pack of dogs had followed him through the jungle made of metallic sheets.

    He forgot about the bullets that were hurling towards him and lost himself in his remembrance. The thick tile that was protecting him was being reduced at a speed where it could be noticed with the naked eyes. He figured out that it shouldn''t last more than a few more seconds. He breathed out while figuring out Shroum''s position by using the bullet''s trajectory. Thankfully, Shroum wasn''t the kind to be aggressive and didn''t try to rush from the sides to get a better angle. Instead, he had chosen the safest option, which was taking away Fell''s defenses slowly in the most reliable means.

    The moment he noticed that the tile was going to break down in an instant, Fell entered a hyper-focused state where the shot''s angle and strength were computed swiftly by his brain. He threw one rock toward the sky. Though, this single throw would never touch Shroum''s body.

 Chapter 120 Tips And Tricks Part One

    Shroum saw the object pierce through the air and fly towards the sky but choose to ignore it as he swiftly assessed at it would never hit near his position. Yet, his body instinctively moved a few inches to the left while firing the automatic rifle in his hand. As he felt that he was running out of ammo, he stopped for a single second to reload his weapon. He swiftly resumed his spraying to take down the big tile that blocked his bullets from hitting his target. As someone who uses a ranged weapon in a game filled with close-quarter users, he was quite skilled when it came to the speed of reloading his weapon. It had been one of the things he had to work on, along with his accuracy.

    But during this small frame of action that should have been safe, he detected the impossible. An object was currently piercing through space and had appeared from a dead angle in his upper left field of view. He didn''t have the time to understand anything before the flying weapon connected with the floor near his feet. The unknown weapon had appeared from nowhere, and by the time he was aware of it, he simply couldn''t move to evade it. A cloud of dust made from the broken floor rose in front of him. The next moment, a rock pierced through the cloud and smashed into his torso. The stone had accumulated a tremendous amount of kinetic energy. As soon as it connected with his body, it turned into powder, and the power it contained was transmuted to his body. His lung expelled the air that was in them as he hissed from the pain. His legs instantly disconnected from the floor as contact was made. The next moment, he was on the ground a few meters from where he was standing before. His mind couldn''t even think as he began seeping into unconsciousness. The only thing he felt was the searing bone splitting pain on his torso. As he felt himself seep into darkness for an instant, he couldn''t help but mumble in his last breath.

    "H¡­How?"

    The next moment he awoke, the first thing that came to Shroum''s sight was the ceiling of his room. He blinked a few times as his brain picked the last memory he remembered. A few seconds after that, he remembered what had happened and understood that he had been beaten thoroughly in his last fight. "Incredible, he didn''t even try to fight me as a close quarter fighter but instead used his surroundings to battle me in my own field of predilection¡­", he thought as he got up from the metallic machine that was used for logging on Battle League. "I guess I still have a lot to learn," he thought while a smile was drawn on his lips. Although he was saddened by his loss as he hated the feeling, he couldn''t help but show respect towards his opponent as his mind was kindled from it. "I need to develop tactics against users that are capable of such feats," his sad expression disappeared as he lost his mind in his pondering.

    Shroum wasn''t the only one in this situation. Among the player base of New Casablanca''s battle center, scenes like this could be seen everywhere. Some didn''t accept his advice and were more entitled to progressing their own way. While others were too delusional to even accept criticism. Fell didn''t have the mind to further his attempts at helping, he would only drop a sentence or two during his fights. If they took it and managed to incorporate them into their progress, then it was good. Or else he simply wouldn''t care as he didn''t have the time to bother with them.

    Time passed and he even had the opportunity of meeting a few players he already fought. But even with those now familiar faces, Fell didn''t go easy on them and made them sweat buckets. Those that had managed to fill the flaws in their habits were rewarded with more pointers, and the respect that they showed when they faced Fell only grew with each encounter. Yet even as he began enjoying the teaching sessions, he was still disappointed as he wasn''t matched against someone from the top ten. Here he was only separated by a few walls as they were housed on the same floor. But in-game, it was as if they were evading him, and the system never managed to put him against those ranked in the top ten. And it was with feeling mixed between satisfaction and bitterness that he logged out.

    "What a day¡­", he exclaimed as he opened his eyes. "I hope those bastards are going to log in tomorrow.", little did he know that it wasn''t that they weren''t logged in the game.

    The top ten users of most battle centers weren''t fond of the local matchmaking, and that was understandable from their point of view. Being in the top ten meant that your own strength vastly differed from the rest. If any of the users wanted to progress more, then the only logical thinking would be to avoid fighting someone weaker than you. It was due to this logic that the top rankers were nowhere to be found in the local matchmaking, thankfully Fell had managed to create quite the awe-inspiring wave in this battle center. It wouldn''t take him too long for them to notice him, and it was with this thinking that he got up from the Cerebral Link.

    He sat on his bed with a relaxed expression as he readied himself on cultivating his will. His breathing slowed down to a crawl, and every cycle of respiration took him more than a minute to finish. The night quietly passed as he cleansed his mind while his lungs were filtering the air in his surroundings. Little did he know that the waves he had caused would far outweigh what he had thought.

 Chapter 121 Tips And Tricks Part Two

    Morning''s warm light softly shined on the streets of New Casablanca. Fell was still in a deep meditative state and was unaware that the waves he had spread last night were reverberating farther than what he thought. He slowly rose from his mindful state as he felt his back bask in the sunlight. He opened his eyes and, contrary to what could be expected from someone who didn''t sleep, they weren''t groggy. It was the exact opposite, his eyes were fresh and didn''t seem the least bit tired.

    He got up from his bed and moved his limbs around to stretch his stiffened body. After a few seconds of light movement, his moves accelerated as he felt blood rush through his veins. His heart pumped blood faster, and the soft moves he executed turned into an adamantine thrust from his limbs. His leg would snap in front of him, disappearing before it reappeared, blowing the air away from the impact. After a few minutes, he felt as if his body had awakened and stopped moving around. He walked towards the mini kitchen that was at his disposition and served himself a warm cup of coffee. Although it had no effect on his psyche as the coffee wasn''t strong enough to stress his brain, he still enjoyed the beverage and found pleasure in drinking it.

    He logged on the computer and checked the city''s intra-net before finding Battle League''s forum. As he was currently registered inside of New Casablanca''s network, the forum was only limited to the battle center where he stood. His eyes crossed the several posts while sipping his coffee, and between a few tutorials, he found a post that caught his eyes. The title was short, but as he clicked on it, his sight saw a massive wall of text that sang praise about a Battle Center''s user. His cheek glowed as he began being ashamed when he noticed that the player they were talking about was his own avatar, Stroke.

    He spent the next five minutes reading the post''s comment, and after finishing his drink, he felt that he couldn''t take it anymore. It was as if they had completely missed the point. Between the unadulterated praises and the sarcasm from the numerous trolls, he couldn''t make his mind to read one more message. He shut down the holographic screen, and got up from the small desk before leaving for a stroll to calm his mind.

    "What a bunch of dumbasses¡­ I hope they''ll finally log in by the time I come back.", he thought as he entered the elevator. Not even a minute after that, he was outside of the battle center''s building, breathing fresh air. He inhaled deeply as he savored dawn''s distinctive air. He stood still for a few seconds, feeling the wind softly brush his face. Before continuing his walk, his legs started going in a direction without any further thoughts and unknowingly directed towards his apartment. By the time he arrived, the streets of the main district were somewhat full of cars and trucks. The sound of their engines and horns filled Fell''s surroundings. It was still early in the morning, and most of the civilians were going to their jobs. During the travel, he had passed through several police stations, but didn''t stop in any as he didn''t know where the assault team was assigned to.

    He thought about them and fell in reminiscence as his legs took him around the city. Soon enough, he arrived at his apartment and briskly stepped through the large hall. A few dozen seconds after that, he was already inside his accommodation; without thinking twice, he awoke a sleeping Wind from his dreams and began cooking a gargantuan meal. The two youths spent half an hour together, and Wind took this as an opportunity to get pointers for his training. Fell took the time to answer all of Wind''s question before telling him about Battle League and New Casablanca''s Battle Center.

    The official''s eyes opened in surprise at his brother''s tale as he wasn''t aware of the game''s existence. His eyes glowed from excitement when he heard about that. Although he had been passionate and hardworking about his training for the past weeks, he still didn''t get any experience when it came to fights. He was aware that as a cultivator, he would need to defend himself or his friends at some point. He had already found it odd that he wasn''t training in any specific martial art, and that all he had been doing was running and lifting weight. He didn''t deny that Fell''s methods showed incredible results, but he was always bothered by this matter. Even if his body was strong, even if his mind was strong, if he didn''t know how to fight, then in a life or death experience, it would be over for him.

    His body trembled, Wind felt as if he couldn''t contain himself anymore. He asked with a trembling voice while avoiding Fell''s sight. "Do you think I could also play the game?"

    Fell didn''t find any problem with it and gave his approval with a nod. Wind''s face elongated as a beaming smile appeared on his lips. He had been enduring tremendous loneliness during the past weeks. Although Fell had been with him during all this time, except for the meals and training session, he had been alone. It didn''t actually bother him too much, but he was still in his youth and needed to socialize.

    "But if you skip any training session, then¡­", he added while snorting a cold wisp of air. He didn''t finish his sentence as he knew that Wind was aware of the consequences. They spoke about a few trivial matters while joking around before Fell got up from the chair. He readied himself to leave for the battle center, he turned toward Wind and added before leaving.

    "Just give them my name, or try looking for a certain Tahlya¡­", he explained while talking about Battle League. "They''ll take care of you if they know you are with me."

 Chapter 122 Tips And Tricks Part Three

    Wind nodded several times in a row before getting from the table. He donned his martial attire and left not too long after Fell, he hummed and whistled as he traversed the streets of New Casablanca. After a few minutes of walking, he arrived at the Golden Factory with a puffed out chest filled with confidence. As for Fell, he had come in the Battle Center, and had gone back to his room since he didn''t seem to find Tahlya.

    "She must still be mad at me¡­", he thought as approached the Cerebral Link. His hands traced the surface of the metallic object before hopping on top of it, he closed his eyes as he thought about the top rankers. "I hope I''ll meet them today."

    Another day filled with brawling began for the young cultivator. He met dozens of users that he had already fought in the day before, and most of them had respect plastered on their faces. A few of them even bowed toward him before the fight began, while others would stay expressionless.

    "Thanks for yesterday''s pointers!" one of them exclaimed before rushing to face him in a close-quarter brawl. He was a pugilist who followed the way of the fist, and Fell was surprised by this man as he had rarely met people fighting exclusively without a weapon. His hand to hand combat techniques were far from being average, and Fell took quite the pleasure in teaching him a few tricks. He didn''t feel like forcing too much knowledge and was more inclined to show them the way. But with this pugilist, he couldn''t help but see part of himself in his fighting style. It was without any reservation that he would beat him into a pulp, only for the man to stand up before rushing toward him.

    He was, obviously, particularly careful as he could end the fight if he focused too much on the pugilist''s vital organs. But the man showed him more and more that he couldn''t be underestimated. What shocked him more was that his progress was astounding. The first time they had met, he didn''t even manage to keep up ten moves with him. The second time he had made it past the twenty moves mark before Fell brutally ended the fight with a punishing move. Each time the pugilist would queue up again in the local matchmaking, and he wouldn''t stop unless he met him again. Fell grew used to his antics and even began sharing a few pleasantries with him before engaging in the fight.

    "What the hell dude!" Fell''s eyebrow rose as he saw the now familiar figure reappear in front of him. "How the hell do you even have this much priority in the queue?" he asked while massaging his temple. Another scream echoed from his front, followed by the sounds of wind snapping outwardly for a few moments. "Thankfully we''re in a game, or else you would already be dead by the amount of time I''ve punched you.", he exclaimed while lifting the pugilist and throwing him in the air. "Train more before queuing up. I mean, I know that I''m quite the hot subject lately, but you should refrain from forcing me too much", he said while sighing. He turned around and began walking away as he waited for the system to announce his win, yet he didn''t hear anything, and when he turned around, his heart skipped a beat. The pugilist''s whole body was filled with dozens of wounds, and his clothes were in shamble as every fiber of his body trembled due to him trying to get back on his feet.

    "Guess you have the potential for further grooming!" he exclaimed whit a twisted grin on his lips. The pugilist felt that something was amiss, and his chest couldn''t help but tighten around his heart as he felt the pressure surrounding him peak in an instant.

    "Impressive!" he exclaimed as his fear escaped from his mind. "I hope we''ll meet again. That day I will make you fight me seriously.", he added before the pugilist''s body began falling toward the ground. But he managed to stand still, his eyes glowed as he clenched his fist weakly and assumed a fighting stance.

    "Open your eyes!" Fell exclaimed as his voice boomed through the fighting arena. His right hand flowed in front of him before positioning itself near his ribcage. "This is your prize for your resilience!", he added as his legs took root on the ground. His leg''s muscles bulged as he began accumulating tremendous strength. "See it, feel it, I know you won''t disappoint me.", Fell''s voice entered the pugilist''s ears, causing his eyes to glow even more. Even with the pain that covered his whole body, he didn''t dare to blink, and his focus was entirely projected on Fell''s figure. He saw every single frame of Fell''s movements, and his senses were so focused on the white-haired avatar that he even forgot to breathe. Without any sign, Fell released everything in one go.

    Fell''s figure disappeared from the pugilist''s sight. Then the place where his leg stoop exploded as a cloud of dust rose outwardly. Then he felt a piercing pain connect with his chest. The next instant, he found himself staring at his ceiling without moving a single inch. He wasn''t sure how it happened, but the pugilist spent the next few minutes without moving, He hadn''t only seen Fell''s act from the execution to the impact. He had even felt a nuclear-like impact that smashed his body into nothingness.

    A smile appeared in his lips as he thanked the mysterious senior in his mind. "Strength can be stored in such mysterious ways¡­", he thought as he swiftly got up from the Cerebral Link.", Although the man wasn''t part of the top ten rankers. His situation was similar to Fell as he was also privileged in the Battle Center. That could be seen by the high quality of his room that could be considered equal to where Fell was housed.

 Chapter 123 Tips And Tricks Part Four

    The pugilist''s avatar was named Sam. And it could be shown by his in-game skills that he hadn''t been given his current rank by merit. He wasn''t well known through the battle center as the community was still young, but the few who knew him were aware of his condition. He was part of Spinters'' family, his nephew to be more precise. Due to that, he had been given quite the advantage compared to the others. As there were more rooms than there are top rankers, he had managed to get himself a top-quality one after nagging his uncle for days.

    Lately, he had used the same kind of privilege to get matched against Fell''s avatar Stroke every time both of them would be logged in. He was aware that if his uncle learned the truth, then it might lead to him getting problems, but he couldn''t stop himself from doing so. Thankfully the matter wasn''t as severe as it was, and he hadn''t broken any significant rules. He only needed to promise a few things to the team that managed the servers.

    As the nephew of the current chairman, he was quite liked in the battle center''s worker team.

    "I knew it!" he thought as he prepared himself a meal in the small kitchen that was in the large room. "Fighting barehanded does have its own advantages!" he thought while remembering Fell''s last move. "My next goal is to learn this skill!" he thought as he remembered the way Fell had accumulated strength in his limb before releasing it. "But how is it possible to store energy in one''s muscles?!", he thought as he clenched his fist and tried to flex his forearm as much as he could.

    He was quite the rarity in their local battle center as he had chosen to brawl the other user barehanded. He had kept doing so from the first time he had played the game. It all came down to a simple reason, the sensation of his fist connecting with his opponent''s body left his body tingle from adrenaline. For someone who had been sheltered all of his life, this new primal feeling left him hooked like an addict. He didn''t care about winning or losing, and the only thing that made him want to progress was that he wanted to discover more of what he could do.

    Although the game came with quite the pain, he had learned to shut it down as he knew that it wouldn''t last. Thankfully he hadn''t tried to do it in real life as he knew that his current body was far from the specs of his avatar. Although he wasn''t frail and had managed to build his body to a decent state, he was still a mortal, and punching through a wall was still just a fantasy, but he knew that the game had much more to offer. His uncle might not be capable of opening him the way of cultivation, but with his own fists, he might accomplish it with battle league.

    The more he played, and the further down he progressed in his path. The further his beliefs solidified, meeting with Fell was an example that the road in the front of him was still grand. He cheered himself as he enjoyed the noodles he had made, before swiftly logging back in the game. "I can''t meet him again without showing any decent results¡­", he thought as he dabbled with the option from the matchmaking. His finger slid on the wall filled with options in front of him before entering the biggest queue available. A smile appeared on his lips as he saw the system''s notification.

    ''Match will begin in ten second.''

    "I will fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!" he exclaimed before his avatar disappeared in the void. Sam didn''t know it himself but armed with his burning passion, it didn''t take long for him to turn into an exceptional player.

    Back in New Casablanca, in a dense jungle made of metallic sheet and junks named the Core. A large building could be found in the middle of the labyrinth-like crisscrossing streets of the shanty town. Here, it was far away from the grand immaculate sword-like building that climbed to the heavens. The only architecture that could be found were outdated and were considered centuries'' old.

    Not far from the large lighted building, a man dressed in a grey coat traversed a narrow street at a fast pace. His jacket was patched with several spots and clearly showed that he wasn''t part of a decent social class, even in the Core. His walking speed was fast, and every few seconds, his neck would twist around to check if there was any soul following him. His hands were in his coat''s pocket, and he breathed roughly after a dozen of minutes of walking, and he perspired profusely due to his stressed nerves. After turning through several intersections, he stopped in a corner and waited a few minutes.

    The man in a grey coat stood in the shadow with his eyes locked on the street he had just passed. His breathing was haggard, and his overly beating heart in his chest made him unable to calm down. "C''mon, you are just dreaming¡­ No one is following you¡­", he mumbled in an inaudible voice in between two breaths. His eyes were gorged red from his stressed state, and he didn''t blink for a few minutes before finally sighing. He clenched his left hand on his shaking arm, and after a few seconds, he finally managed to calm down. He resumed his walk through the dense metallic jungle, and after a few minutes, he arrived in front of a large building. This place was well known by most of the citizen of the Core. It was widely called as the epitomes of evil. If you needed anything shady, be it drugs weaponry or any kind of vices, then that was the place.

    "Filthy Jade Palace¡­", the man mumbled as he stood in front of the lit building.

 Chapter 124 Tips And Tricks Part Five

    There he stood, gasping for breath, and had been highly stressed mainly due to the mission he been given by that man. His lungs felt as if they were on fire, and every breath of air left his throat sore, paranoia had wasted his mental energy all day. He had been profoundly afraid of the consequences that could happen due to what he saw.

    He tried to calm himself as much as he could before meeting them, but the more he stood on the outside of the building, the more his brain sent impulse signals that made him want to rush through the doors near him. He felt as if eyes were locked continuously on his back and that he could be shot down at any moment. He couldn''t help but move uncontrollably; his legs were shaking as he was struggling to decide. Then, as he couldn''t take it anymore, he entered through the door while licking his parched lips. He managed to make contact with one of the building''s administrators. After a minute of explanation from his part, he managed to get a meeting with the higher-ups.

    The next moment, he sat on a cold chair in a dimly lighted room. Although it wasn''t anything comfortable, he finally felt at ease in the enclosure of the building. He was aware that the Filthy Jade Palace''s security wasn''t to be trifled with. Although he wasn''t sure if they could fend off their attacks, in the end, it was much better than the streets of the Core.

    After what felt like an eternity of waiting for them, he finally heard footsteps approach the door of the room. He saw the door handle turn, and a small flash of light burned his eyes as the light from the corridor entered the room. A person entered the room, and although he didn''t have the time to identify any feature, he was sure that it was him.

    "How was the mission?" a cold, emotionless voice entered his ears. Although the voice was chilling, he was comforted by it as he got confirmation that it was him.

    "It was a success¡­", the man in a grey coat briskly answered the question. His lips opened up again, but the sentence he wanted to say didn''t manage to leave his throat. Silence took over the room as his hesitation spiked; finally, he managed to blurt a few words as he felt the man''s cold glare on his body intensify.

    "W-W-We are doomed!" he paused for an instant as he noticed the man''s glare flash for a moment in confusion before continuing. "I went there, I''ve hidden among them like you''ve asked me to do. The operation went without any trouble, and I don''t think I was even noticed during the whole ordeal.", he tried to formulate everything as good as he could. But his stressed state of mind and the fact that he didn''t manage to sleep for a week made him spurt gibberish.

    "I can''t do it anymore¡­ And I''m sure that if I go back now, they''ll notice that I left.", he managed to say in a single breath. He felt the man''s glare furiously pierce through his neck, and he began explaining himself furthermore. "I didn''t have another way! N-No wait!" the man with a grey coat screamed as he saw the man advance toward him.

    "The city is done for¡­ They are planning an attack, we are all doomed.", the man''s advance stopped, and curiosity appeared in his gaze. Feeling that he had a chance for life, his lips shivered as he grasped the opportunity to speak more. "Recently, Something happened in the main district. An otherworldly phenomenon took over the city by night; clouds appeared from the middle of nowhere! Thunder clapped, but the event went unnoticed since it happened in the middle of the night. But they understood what it meant! And they are going to take precautions against it and deal with it as soon as possible!" he spoke loud and fast as he knew that the man in front of him wouldn''t show more patience.

    The man with a cold gaze looked at him intensely as if he wanted to pierce him. He felt as if his secret were unearthed during that moment, and his throat tightened as he felt he couldn''t breathe anymore. Then, he spoke. "You''ve done well¡­ Thanks to your information, we can prepare ourselves to leave.", contrary to his dead eyes, his voice was warm and showed concern to the man wearing a grey coat.

    He didn''t relax at all. In fact, it was the contrary as his brain sent him dozens of signals showing him that danger was even more present than before. His fear spiked, and he felt as if he was going to throw up from the stressful situation.

    "But we can''t let you leave.", as soon as the word entered his ears. It was like a bomb dropped confirming his fears. "You are going to have to die, but it will be for the better good of Filthy Jade Palace. We have enjoyed your participation in our business and are definitely grateful for your work.", then his hand moved, and a muffled shot resounded in the now silent room. No screams, no sound of pitiful pleading could be heard as the poor man didn''t even have the time to pray for his well-being in the afterlife.

    Blank-Faced Joe turned around and left the room without taking another look at the still warm corpse. He was one of the generals of Filthy Jade Palace and was well known for being one of the most cold-blooded and heartless general of the business. Emotions were only a means to his end, and all acknowledged him for his wits and strength. Contrary to the others, he hadn''t climbed from a mountain of corpses like the other generals. He was one of the founders of the association3. Keeping his position for such a long time was a true feat and a testimony of his strength.

 Chapter 125 Storming To The Top Part One

    Filthy Jade Palace had appeared a short time before the appearance of the alien civilizations. Before that, the Core was as unruly as it could get, and no one could claim superiority in the underground city. As it was disconnected from the main district by a long distance and by gigantic walls, the police never managed to claim control of the area, and neither did they ever truly tried. This left the shady area of the city in a constant troubled state. Gangs and small organizations controlled streets and hoods, yet no one had ever managed to subject them under a single crown.

    Yet Filthy Jade Palace had done the impossible, and it was after fending off dozens of alien assailants that they had managed to govern the city''s underground business. Assassinations, schemes, and fear were the weapons used in this ordeal. Blank-Faced Joe had risen through the ranks from an ordinary gangster to one who founded the organization that later ruled the underground world. Although alien clans and families had aided his opponents, he had stood strong against them and never failed in his duties. Wars after wars, it was only as the last straw that Joe had chosen to ally himself with them. The benefits he had reaped during this phase were extraordinary: cultivation techniques and resources that made him ascend past the realm of mortality, weapons that could disintegrate a building in a single shot. And the only way he had attained his position was due to a box he had found; he explained that the box contained immense treasure that could cause greed to appear in the heart of the most valorous man.

    He called it the box of Pandora. To this day, it had never been opened.  Its contents had remained secret to all the members of the organization. Even when it came to the alien clans, they had respected his offer and never tried to break their vows. Since then, it had served as a balance of power between the generals of the association. The box couldn''t be opened unless you had all the different keys together. The generals of the Filthy Jade Palace all had a key, and one of their duties was to keep it safe. Many had tried to retrieve its content when ascending to the position of a general, but the most they ever achieved was acquiring two keys. As soon as it happened, the person would simply disappear from the face of the city. Never to be found again.

    Blank-Faced Joe walked through a corridor in the main building of Filthy Jade Palace. Reminiscence appeared in his mind as he remembered what he had told the chief from the alien clan from back then. "Greed is what will make this association last!" he remembered that night particularly well. He simply needed to close his eyes, and his senses would vividly remember all of the past events. Like always, it had been his wits that had pushed him through success, and the only bargain he had during that talk was his own person. But he had managed the impossible, and due to that, the walls of this building stood tall during years.

    He sighed as he knew that the end was near, even himself couldn''t help but turn slightly emotional as he thought about all those events. "Look at me, if people knew that ''Blank-Faced Joe'' had feelings when thinking about the past. What would they think?" he pondered as his dead eyes gazed at the filthy sky of the Core. With time, he had come to feel warmth whenever he stared at the soiled firmament. He was aware that it was all fake and that those weren''t clouds but only the reject of the thousands of factories that spanned around the shantytown.

    His head shook slightly as his heart turned cold. He needed to keep his mind clear, the end was near, and he needed to take care of the last measures. Filthy Jade Palace''s history was linked to his own. Before, he was just a simple gangster who relied on his wits to dominate the nearby streets. But now he was at a cultivator, someone who sat on the same table as those who run the underground world. Schemes had always been his specialty, and he needed to prepare the last one he would offer to this shitty city.

    With that last thought in mind, he resumed his walk inside of the long, dimly lighted corridor. "They will probably be curious about why I''ve summoned them! Some of those bastards might insult me for wasting their so-called precious time."

    A small crooked grin appeared on his pale face. If anyone from Filthy Jade Palace had seen it, their mind would have probably reeled from panic; everyone knew that if Blank-Faced Joe laughed, then hell would befall upon your face. Suicide would be the only option left as that bastard would follow you to the main district just to achieve his goals.

    "Pandora¡­ The end is near!" he murmured under his breath as he disappeared in a corner.

    A day passed quietly in the central district as Fell''s life entered a routine in the battle center. Every day, he would log in the local matchmaking and from then on, would beat one opponent after another. Little by little, he came to be well known from the local community, and his name caused waves through the upper ranks of the game users.

    "I heard even TwoSeconds couldn''t help but accept pointers from him!"

    "I heard yesterday that he was matched against the rank 7 of our battle center, the fight wasn''t intense at all, and it was pretty much one-sided!"

    "Do you think he is offering pointers to the top ranker?!"

    Those rumors only served to his purpose as the local matchmaking system was flooded by numerous users that usually wouldn''t care about it. And as the day passed, a massive changed happened to the community as each individual made astounding progress that shocked the chairman still.

 Chapter 126 Storming To The Top Part Two

    Spinters casually browsed through the information that had been handed to him by his assistant. After his eyes crossed a few lines, he raised his head with confusion and asked toward his assistant. "Is this the progress from last month?" his eyebrows rose from surprise as he couldn''t help but find that the overall ranks had gone up. They had gone up so much that he didn''t dare the trust his eyes and began massaging his temples while waiting for the young man in front of him to answer his question.

    "No, Sir. This is, in fact, the records from the last two days!", the young man himself couldn''t help but doubt his own words. It was just too shocking, how could the entirety of the local player base progress at such a ridiculous speed. But he couldn''t voice it as the number on the record didn''t lie. New Casablanca''s player base was making a rush through the Earthly ladder, and if they kept with this rhythm, it wouldn''t take long them to develop into a reputable Battle Center on Earth.

    "If even the last in the ranking made such absurd progress, then what about the first in the ladder?", Chairman asked as he felt that the matter was too far fetched for it to be that simple.

    After checking the data at hand, the assistant briskly spoke without raising his head. "Not much change when it comes to the top ten in the ranking, their ranks are stable¡­ The only exceptions are those three!" he said while swiping his finger on the tablet-sized screen in front of him. The three user''s data appeared in front of him; The avatars EatIt, DogPie, and MkPeo''s were swiftly analyzed by the chairman in a dozen of seconds. Then he crossed his hands and fell in deep thought before slapping his tights as if he had a revelation.

    "Cross the information of the users with one variable!" his assistant executed the settings without further thought. After preparing everything, he asked Chairman Spinters which variable to add.

    "Number of times they have faced the user "Stroke.", the assistant remembered hearing this word from the mouth of several users but hadn''t put the matter as he just thought he was a current superstar of the game.

    As the information swiftly changed on the screens in front of them, Spinters calmly pondered on the matter while waiting for the changes to occur. "The results are undeniable!" he exclaimed as his eyes darted left and right, reading the wall of data in front of him. "Stroke is at talent when it comes to helping others!", as soon as he exclaimed, he clapped his in his office before ordering his assistant one last time.

    "Whoever manages to beat Stroke will be granted a wish from me!". The assistant darted from the chairman''s office in a dash. Chairman Spinters fiddled with the data in front of him as a smile appeared on his face.

    "So that''s your way of making us win the next tournament¡­", he mumbled while thinking about his discussion with Fell. "No wonder he seemed so confident. He wasn''t talking about carrying the battle center by himself, but he wanted to raise the battle center''s whole level!".

    The more he thought about it, the more he couldn''t fathom the young cultivator that had shared a drink with him. He had met dozens of arrogant youth that showered him with empty vows and promises, rare were those that actually held true to their pledges.

    "Achoo!" a sneeze resounded in a silent fighting platform. Fell stood in the middle of his mountain peak as he hesitated on activating the platform. If it were only the local matchmaking, he wouldn''t have stood there for so long. But it was different now, and if he activated the platform, he would face his fourth opponent in . Such an act couldn''t be done on a whiff as he was interested in trying to get the maximum reward. Karukobi was his third opponent, and the giant''s strength had left him a deep, lasting impression. He didn''t dare to underestimate his next opponent as he knew it could cost him an instant loss.

    "When have I hesitated so much on a simple matter?!" he said as he tried to raise his momentum. "But what if I''m not ready¡­" he thought as doubt appeared on his mind. Then an idea appeared as he remembered that he never asked his mountain about a specific subject.

    He coughed as his body instinctively took a polite form, his face reddened as bashfulness took over his skin. "Old mountain?" a soft voice escaped Fell''s throat before resounding through the vast mountain peak.

    "Oh-Oh-Oh! You didn''t forget about this old one?" a coarse voice appeared from the void as a powerful shock wave washed Fell''s surrounding. "What do you need, young one?"

    Fell bashfully asked, with a slightly bowed head. "You see Unc-Senior Mountain¡­ I''ve been questioning myself. You see, I''ve won three of my five first matches, and I''m aiming for the maximum reward.", his eyes glowed as he thought of a way to phrase his next sentence.

    "Isn''t there a way for me to train here without facing any opponent?" as soon as the word escaped his lips. He knew that the chances were low, fighting opponents was already part of the training. He just hoped that the creators of battle league might have put some hidden features that would only reveal themselves if players asked or looked around. Fell sighed as he felt that the silence that followed his question was more of an answer than anything the mountain could say.

    But, a gigantic string of laugher resounded all around him, followed by a few words that changed his facial expression.

    "There are a few ways.", the mountain''s answer may have been short. But Fell bashfulness disappeared as soon as he heard it, his back straightened and his mouth opened as he loudly exclaimed. "Which way!", if he could have grabbed the mountain by the collar, he would have shaken him to get the answer faster.

 Chapter 127 Storming To The Top Part Three

    "Oh-Oh-Oh! That''s the youth I know, highly spirited", the mountain''s coarse voice entered Fell''s ears, making him feel even more shame than before. "Usually, those facilities can only be entered when one finishes his placement matches¡­ But there is a hidden rule that can give you access to them before you finish your matches. And you are lucky because you have access to the first trial by fire!"

    His voice boomed through the mountains. Fell''s eyebrows rose as a puzzled look appeared on his face, "Trial by fire?". "What is a trial by fire?" he asked in a voice filled with questioning. He had never heard about a trial by fire in the game, and neither had he heard chairman spinters talk about it, nor did the player base of New Casablanca ever spoke about it.

    "It is one of the means that player has access to for training. You only have one entry for each trial by fire!" the old mountain paused for a few seconds before resuming. "By achieving three wins, you have been granted access to the first Trial by Fire!"

    "The rules are simple; it is, in fact, very similar to the first tutorial. But contrary to the tutorial''s first phase, the opponents you will face in each wave are nearly on par with a common individual from the tutorial''s second phase!"

    As soon as he heard it, Fell felt his skin tighten as waves of excitation spread through his body. He was thrilled beyond excitation as he felt his blood boil in his veins. His desire to fight was going through the roof. He clenched his fists from anticipation and swiftly sat down to prepare himself for the trial. He needed his mind to be on an optimal level, and he was going to meditate and refine his battle intent until it was the ideal moment.

    "Youth those days¡­", murmured the old mountain soul to itself. "He didn''t even wait for me to finish my explanation, and he already closed his senses¡­"

    "Well, not learning about the hidden dangers and the potential gains might help clear his focus¡­", he thought as he disappeared in the void.

    Time passed quietly as Fell spent an hour without moving a single inch from his spot. He focused on sharpening his will while regulating his breathing, and soon enough, he attained a state where he could stand in the midst of a storm without batting an eyelid. Every inch of his avatar''s body was under his complete control, and he felt that he was synchronizing even more with his avatar. Although the virtual body was his own in the game, there has always been a small latency when it came to the action he executed. A veil had always stood between his intent and his avatar Stroke. But now, after spending dozens of hours in the game, he felt as if that barrier was being broken. Every moment spent in the game brings down the latency little by little in his current practice. The difference may be subtle, and wouldn''t directly augment his speed or power. But it couldn''t either be ignored as it smoothened his connection with his avatar.

    Suddenly, he opened his eyes, and a sharp glint was reflected on the black colored iris of his avatar. It was as if a blade was hidden in his gaze, ready to be unsheathed at any moment notice. He slowly breathed out a long breath before raising on his feet. He stood quietly for a moment; he felt as if his joints were stacked on, and standing didn''t cost him any physical resources. His hands were partially opened, relaxed, and ready to move without hindrance if needed. He lifted his foot and lightly tapped the tiles on the floor under him. Pa-Pa! Two distinctive muffled sound resounded through the large mountain peak, and his figure disappeared before reappearing a few dozen meters in front of him. Except from the sound of his feet lightly tapping the floor, his high speed movement had produced close to zero noise, and it was more similar to him piercing through space as the air resistance didn''t seem to hinder his movements.

    "Senior Mountain. I''m ready.", his voice was calm, and there was no bravado or momentum in his tone, everything was deeply hidden in his psyche. An incredible confidence suffused from his tone. He even hesitated a split second for going through his fourth match right now. But he didn''t let himself be overwhelmed with his battle intent as he knew that it would be stupid to ignore the trial by fire. If he had found out about it, then his opponent would be in a similar position. Not taking advantage of it would be the worst call possible.

    "Good! Go down that path¡­", Fell couldn''t see which direction the old mountain spoke about, but a moment after, he heard the words. He felt a movement in his surroundings, and a gust of wind passed through him before continuing to his left. His neck turned around, and he saw it. It was as if space and time had been breached, and a human sized hole stood in the middle of the fighting platform.

    "Looks quite frightening.", a chuckle escaped from his lips as he grinned in front of the portal that appeared. Without a second thought, his leg moved, and he stepped inside, disappearing from the fighting platform.

    "It is frightening¡­", the old mountain mumbled as it also disappeared inside of the endless void.

    The first thing that entered Fell''s sight was the sky. A dark, obscure and obnoxious sky hung on top of his head. Billows of grey clouds rolled on the firmament as they produced flashes of purple lightnings and explosions. Then he noticed the over sized moon that quietly hung in the middle of the hellish picture. The moon was blood red, and its size was humongous as Fell could clearly see the impacts and pits that traveled all over the celestial object.

 Chapter 128 Storming To The Top Part Four

    The hellish scenery shocked and frightened him quite a lot. He quickly managed to calm down by reminding himself that it''s a game, nothing to be afraid of. The scenery in the surrounding area was only there to add a little bit of flavor, some kind of world-building made by the developer to spook the players. Those were his thoughts, and he was indeed aware that the real danger would be the waves that he was going to face.

    As the system didn''t show him any interface, he stepped forward as he advanced in the odd place. Noticing the piles of rubble and destructed pillars that were on his path, he couldn''t help but praise the developer of the game for the realism of the scene. He could swear that he had been dropped in the middle of an old battlefield. As he walked, his sight couldn''t help but lock on the few pillars and destroyed buildings on his road.

    "They kinda look like an alternative roman civilization¡­", he thought as he remembered one movie he had the occasion to watch at Moha''s bar. His hand traced the constructs surface as he advanced through the path filled with destruction in front of him. After what seemed like a minute of walk in the narrow trail he had been following, he finally arrived in a large circular plaza. His eyes calmly traced his surrounding before being attracted by an object in the middle of the square. The object was a large piece of rock that had fallen from a pillar, and behind the large rock, he noticed something fabric. As he approached the rock and had a better view of what was in front of him, he was sure that the material was part of a piece of clothing. "Quite the nice staging!" he thought as he was only a few feet from seeing what was behind the rock.

    Then as he finally arrived behind the piece of the pillar, he quickly came to understand what the piece of clothing was. Although the bit of clothing was shredded, he still recognized that it was a cape, and its last owner was lying in the ground with his back toward Fell. His nose moved slightly as he sniffed the air in front of him, "It has decayed for years¡­", he assumed as the pungent odor hit his nostrils. As he walked around the corpse, he saw that it had decayed so much that there wasn''t much flesh left. Fell found that the corpse''s skeletal frame was similar to the humans on Earth, except for a few bumps here and there that didn''t match with his own bone structure.

    Then out of nowhere, he felt movement in his surroundings, and he swiftly turned around, but his senses didn''t notice anything. Suddenly, he turned around with a fist clenched and used his movement to accelerate his fist''s momentum. Sounds of bones shattering resounded, and he noticed with slight surprise that the skeletal soldier he had been checking had revived. It stood in place with a skull partially fractured. Fell felt a slight tingling in his fists and noticed that the skin on top of his knuckles had been broken down.

    He cursed inwardly at how weak the in-game avatar was, right before assuming a fighting stance. As he readied himself to dash forward, he heard a cacophony of clacking sounds resounded in the area near the plaza. Clack-Clack-Clack! He didn''t even need to see it to know the sound''s origin. "The first wave is coming¡­", he mumbled as he stepped forward toward the headless skeleton. Three fists hit his target nearly at the same time. The skeleton fell on the ground and came back to a lifeless state. He focused his senses on his surroundings, trying to detect from where the incoming monsters would enter first. "Fuck", he couldn''t help but curse as he swiftly came to the conclusion that his position was going to be soon washed by a sea of rattling bones.

    A sword appeared on his hand the moment he saw dozens of skeleton broke through a nearby trail. He couldn''t help but think that the place where he stood might have been a city devastated by war on some lost planet. During that thought, he dashed to his left. The moment his leg touched the ground, all of the empty thoughts that were filling his mind with useless information disappeared. His body and mind instantly switched to battle mode, his whole being''s intent was flooded with information about his next courses of action. And like a spear, he decided to thrust his whole body into a weak part of the sea of skeletons. They had just come from behind a trail filled with broken pillars, and before they even managed to step inside the plaza, a white haired youth had jumped in the middle of them. His hand flashed several times in an instant. Dozens of skeletons were reduced to smooth bone fragments.

    He repeated the action several time, clearing a ridiculous number of skeleton soldiers before lightly tapping on the ground with his feet. Pa-Pa-Pa! He swiftly arrived on top of a pillar and managed to get on higher ground. The monsters instantly followed suit and began rushing toward the pillar; they climbed on each other in a desynchronized and haphazard way. Sounds of bones breaking assaulted Fell''s ears from all around him. His movements paused for a split second. His eyes darted right and left before growing wide from disbelief. "They aren''t joking with this¡­", he mumbled as his sight was completely filled with the color of the skeleton mob. They extended past the limit of his sight. A sea of white moving in waves to crash on him. Counting them would take nearly as much time as decimating them.

    "Well, time to get to work!" he thought as his leg stepped in the void. His figure pierced through the air as he descended toward the ground, his sword beautifully danced and traced a long stroke that cut whatever was in its way. The sea of skeletons near him exploded as he dashed back toward the plaza.

 Chapter 129 Storming To The Top Part Five

    He knew that the plaza was turning into a large hub of skeleton soldiers due to the incredible noise that was produced from it. The constant sound of rattling bones assaulted his ears, and his sight was reduced as bone powder began hindering his vision. Thankfully, their individual strength didn''t represent any danger to speak of, and except for a few that seemed to be armed, the others couldn''t even hinder his movements as he danced in the middle of the sea of undead soldiers.

    Every time he felt as if he was going to be flooded by their number, he would pierce through them and gain a few moments of safety by attaining a higher ground. Unfortunately, the pillars were already severely damaged and couldn''t shelter him for more than a few seconds. But those seconds meant everything for Fell as they gave him the time to prepare his next action. Soon enough, a routine started to be put in place as Fell quietly got used to fighting in a stressful environment. After the thirty-minute mark, he didn''t even need to think as he felt that his sword moved on its own. He was cutting and slashing whoever came too close to his body. When the one hour mark came close, he stood in place. In the middle of the plaza stood the white-haired avatar of Fell. An endless sea of corpse rushed through him, but his body didn''t move an inch. Every time they tried to get closer and launch an assault, they would simply fall on the ground or misted into a fine powder. Little by little, a mass of bones was accumulated near Fell''s feet, and every time the wind blew, a cloud of dust and bones fragment would rise in the air.

    After having stood there for more than an hour, he came to realize that this wave presented zero danger in his current state. His essential swordplay had been sharpened beyond the level of the skeleton sea, and the more he killed them, the greater his efficiency grew. Hours passed by, and his ability grew to the point where his mind went into autopilot.

    "I hope the next wave isn''t those skeletons again¡­", he thought as his left hand was raised in front of his mouth. He sheltered a large yawn that was escaping his lips as his hand continuously danced in front of him. "I got duped by the old mountain senior¡­ Why the hell did I trust that AI," he thought as he began finding the situation he was in quite dull. This trial was far from the thrill his body felt when he brawled Karukobi.

    "I''ll just rush through this.", he thought after an hour had passed. Fell grew tired of the endless trashing of skeletons. His leg stomped on the ground, leveling hundreds of skeletons in midair before his figure blinked as he executed his movement technique ''Solary Dive.'' His entire body turned into a sword as he pierced through the mob like a maddened beast. The cumulative sound of the mass bone breaking made him feel as if he was going to lose his hearing. He landed on top of a pillar before surveying his surroundings, the same mass of skeleton surrounded him, and he felt as if their number didn''t go down after his destructive spree. But the bone fragments and the air filled with white specs clearly showed him that the number of skeletons he had destructed had already gone past the six digit number.

    "What the hell!?" he exclaimed as he began finding the situation strangely odd. He crouched slightly and prepared himself to jump, his leg''s muscles bugled during a split second before he flew like a kite toward the sky. The more he rose through the air, the more his expression turned aghast. As he rose in altitude, his field of vision grew, and with it grew his inner shock.

    "This isn''t a wave!" he couldn''t help but curse out loud. "This shit is nearly infinite!?" his neck turned left and right during his ascension. And he could see with the naked eye that the sea of skeleton kept growing as he rose higher and higher. "Fuck, old mountain! He only told me that I''d be facing waves of enemies!?" he thought as he finally began falling down. He wasn''t afraid of the endless wave of skeleton soldiers as he had come to learn that they were quite harmless, but continuously fighting them would empty his mental resources in a day. And he was far from being confident of keeping up the same pace during the second day. He was sure that by the time the third day would come, he would be utterly devoid of any strength.

    But that wasn''t all, ever since he remembered what the old mountain had said. He couldn''t help but have an intuition, one that left him feeling fear. "I hope this isn''t just the first wave!" he thought before shutting down the rest of his thought strings.

    Boom! He hit the ground with the violence of a bombshell. His face was calm, and he had reverted to an auto-pilot mode; his mind didn''t think, and his body did all the work for him. He calmly and unhurriedly began taking the skeleton one by one while bracing himself about the endurance test this trial by fire would make him go through.

    Back at New Casablanca, in the core where the organization Filthy Jade Palace delved and grew. One of their leaders, Blank-Faced Joe, stood in front of two individuals. Fear and confusion were plastered on the face of the two individuals that were kneeling on the ground. Their faces were swollen and bruised after what seemed like a beating. Their frames trembled and shivered as they stood in place, their eyes constantly avoiding the dead and emotionless eyes of Blank-Faced Joe. They were inside of a basement, hidden from strangers'' sight as Joe knew that such matters should be dealt with in secrecy.

 Chapter 130 Trial By Fire Part One

    Blank-Faced Joe looked at the pair of man and woman that were kneeling in front of him. His eyes glowed with a chill light in the dimly lighted room as he watched the two kneeling generals in front of him. General of Luxury bit her lips as her mind tried to think of multiple ways to get out of this situation. She slightly turned her sight to the right, but couldn''t help but be disappointed as she saw that the man in front of her had lost all will to survive the ordeal.

    If it was known that the mighty General of Weaponry had been reduced to such a poor state, many would have shaken their heads from disappointment. The strong and mighty dealer of weaponry known for being brazen and fearless was shivering incessantly in front of Blank-Faced Joe''s sight. He didn''t even dare to raise his face and kept looking at the dirty ground from the basement. Every few seconds, he would mumble incoherently, "I don''t know¡­ I don''t know¡­ I don''t know¡­". Seemingly having lost his mind after the round of physical torture, his hands that were supporting his damaged body clearly showed that he had tried to resist.

    Fingers were snapped in strange angles, clearly broken from their swelling, and not a single nail could be found on them. But that wasn''t all; if they had only gone through physical torture, then the two generals wouldn''t have been reduced to such a state. Sadly, for the pair, their opponent was Blank-Faced Joe, a man that wasn''t stopped by moral boundaries and was well known for aiming at people''s weaknesses. In his case, the general of weaponry had lost his will as soon as he learned what happened to his family. His incessant incoherent mumbling had started right when he saw the contents of a small package Blank-Faced Joe had shown him.

    The poor General of Luxury didn''t see the package''s content, but the horrid smell that escaped from it sent her mind reeling from disgust. She didn''t need to be smart to guess what was in it, and she thanked the heavens that she had no close one. During the course of her life, she did her utmost in avoiding the development of a family. She had always considered them as weak spots that were hard to defend. She knew that due to her underground life, she didn''t have that luxury and never had the opportunity to open her heart to any individual. Her manipulations filled with charms had pushed her through the top, and now she couldn''t help but curse herself for that. The man in front of her was no human being, and his demonic eyes left her to doubt the fact that she could survive tonight.

    Blank-Faced Joe calmly looked at them before sighing in a voice filled with fatigue. "I think that the three of us are tired of this theatrical play. How about we stop this, you guys know what I want.", sounds of his feet walking around the empty basement made the two general''s heart want to leave their chest. "Give me the keys, and we will all act like tonight never happened. Look, John, what was in the package didn''t originate from your little daughter but was just reaped from a nearby homeless druggy.", his leg stopped, and his speech stopped for a second. Then the warmth in his tone disappeared. What replaced it sounded like the ninth circle of hell. "But that doesn''t mean that I can''t get the same thing from every single member of your family!" his chilling voice made goosebumps appeared all over their bodies. An overwhelming pressure seemed to appear out of nowhere, pressuring the two generals into the ground, their knee creaked as they felt a tremendous weight appear on top of their back.

    "Quite heavy, right?", Joe smirked while seeing their face approach the filthy floor even more. "Those are just the weight of your sins¡­", he added before turning around and leaving the basement. He knew that cooking them would take much more time than for an average individual, and sadly with time; he seemed to like the process. Breaking down the will of his opponent had turned into a hobby, and although he could do without it, he came to enjoy playing with his opponent''s mind. He felt as if he was in front of a giant puzzle, and the more his opponent resisted, the further his mind enjoyed the process.

    "Their lips will uncover their small little secrets soon enough¡­", he thought as he finished climbing the stair of the basement. He arrived in a large living room, and after passing near a sofa he opened a door and left the house. In front of the small mansion was a guard; a sign of Joe was enough for his subordinate to rush inside the house. He wasn''t afraid that they would escape. Joe had a small number of underlings compared to the other general, but his men were over-equipped and never questioned his orders. All of them trusted him beyond ordinary faith, and some even said that he had mind washed them. Calling them slave soldiers couldn''t be more appropriate, each of them was well equipped and had been trained in for years.

    What was exceptional about his follower was that the majority of them had followed him through his climb of the ranks and through the creation of Filthy Jade Palace. Contrary to the other general''s belief, his crew was filled with individuals that profoundly respect Blank-Faced Joe as a leader. They didn''t fear his emotionless state but respected it as they knew he was the kind of individual who wouldn''t be swayed by humanity''s filthiest habits.

    Blank-Faced Joe calmly walked through the narrow street of the Core, he had been living in this shithole of a city all of his life, and he knew every crook and cranny of it. He couldn''t help but feel safe when he walked in its maze-like streets. Although living in it meant that you could be back stabbed for a penny in any random street, he ended up enjoying it when he got used to it.

 Chapter 131 Trial By Fire Part Two

    Although danger was present everywhere, he was strong and clever enough, so much that living in the Core didn''t matter much, he could live freely as the law of the jungle prevailed, the strongest lived happily. It was a free for all, where one prevailed over the other while plundering him from any resources. He knew that his mind was damaged compared to his other human counterparts, but he also knew that here, it was more of an advantage, and being emotionless had shown him several times how effective it was here. He didn''t bat an eye when killing and could think in the most efficient way without being hindered by empathy.

    His name resounded through the core, and myths and rumors made him even grander ¡ª the legendary man, cold as ice, with an itchy trigger finger. From being just a simple sociopath that couldn''t bond with other human beings, he was transformed into the grand Blank-Faced Joe, a fearless leader whose cunning plan extended past normal logic. But he knew they were wrong, he had felt fear many times during his dangerous life, and he was always thankful that he wasn''t genuinely fearless. His mind reminisced about that event when he had talked with them, with no actual leverage and basis. He had felt as if he could die at any moment, but he managed to push through skillfully. He knew that without fear, he would have died eons ago, and a few fearless individuals showed him that it only leads to death. Being fearless meant being reckless.

    As he walked through a narrow street, he felt his mind freshened as he had stayed in that basement for too long. While he was taking a deep breath, he felt something in his pocket vibrate. His hand moved as he took an old looking phone from his pocket. He pressed a dial and moved the phone near his ear. "Boss, we have acquired the location of the key from one of the generals!"

    "Which one?" he asked as he was interested in which general had lost his leverage in Filthy Jade Palace.

    "The Opiate General has been found dead near his house!", Blank-Faced Joe''s eyebrow rose from surprise. He hadn''t thought that they would act so soon, he had only begun his plan a day ago, and they had already started moving.

    "Wait¡­ He didn''t have the key on his body?", he asked as his mind felt that the matter was strange.

    "No Boss¡­ He did have the key on his body¡­ And it wasn''t hidden at all!" his underling''s tone changed slightly as he also knew that the matter was too strange.

    Blank-Faced Joe stopped in his track for a few seconds, before a large devious smile was drawn on his face. This hidden party knew his goal all along, and he felt as if this person was showing off in front of him. Everyone in Filthy Jade Palace knew that the key represented the general''s authority, owning the key was the equivalent of taking over that general''s position. It even meant that you owned the general''s underlings and business.

    The generals of the Filthy Jade Palace were well known through the Core. They weren''t known individually as persons, but their businesses were known to all. There were seven generals; Luxury, Weaponry, Opiate, Information, Gambling, Human Traffic, and the infamous Hitman. Filthy Jade Palace''s business extended to every range of the underground world, and the balance of power in Filthy Jade Palace was maintained due to the Seven Keys.

    Blank-Faced Joe had now acquired another key on top of the one he already owned. And with the two general he had imprisoned, it wouldn''t be long before he owned four Keys. With that, he would be the general with the most keys. Blank-Faced Joe calmly gazed at the phone he had in his hand, before ordering his underling to take the key then get rid of the body. Even if it was a scheme from someone, he wouldn''t back out from a free key and was fully ready to face whatever would be coming at his face.

    Time ticked as he resumed his steps. He knew that things wouldn''t take long before the grand ending. He was ready and had always been since the day Filthy Jade Palace had taken roots in the Core. He knew that was going to happen wouldn''t just hit the Core, and that even the main districts would forever be changed from the events that would happen in the near future.

    Inside of Battle League, Fell endlessly slew skeleton soldiers without any second of rest. It had been a long time since he lost track of the days that passed; the sun never moved, and his focus wasn''t put on his internal clock.

    "Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill.", Fell constantly repeated himself as he bathed in the sea of undead corpses. He had already grown numb from the constant rattling. Although the hellish atmosphere would have shaken more than one, his mind didn''t take too long to get used to it. The constant fighting had tired him mentally beyond any point he had attained before. However, the gains couldn''t be ignored as he had never executed this many sword strikes successively.

    He had already been feeling like his sword was an extension of his limb. But now he had gone past that step; in his psyche, his sword was an organ on its own. Every single vibration and every minute information that the sword received when passing through the air would swiftly be analyzed and used by his mind. At this point, the endless sea of skeleton soldiers only meant constant training. The only danger was his mind that grew tired after days of slaughter. Thankfully, his iron-will made it possible for himself to support the absurd and abnormal rhythm of the massacre.

    "How long had it been¡­", he thought as he felt like the sea of white skeleton soldier finally begun opening in front of him.

 Chapter 132 Trial By Fire Part Three

    He softly stepped forward, and with a ghostly movement pattern, he crossed dozens of meters in an instant. Any skeleton that was in the range of his sword was smoothly cut in several pieces and fell to the ground. He had been here for a lot of time, and as soon as a change happened in the sea of skeletons, he noticed it. "The waves are moving¡­", he thought as he breathed while using the numerous pillars on the path to propel himself.

    "No! They are reducing!" he exclaimed with excitement as he couldn''t take it anymore from the same actions he had been doing over and over. As he cleared the hundreds of skeletons that stood in the narrow path he had taken, he felt as if all of the noise in his surroundings disappeared. A deadly silence instantly took over the constant rattling that he had gotten used to, and the sudden change couldn''t help but perturb him.

    He stopped in his track before looking at the sky; the same hellish atmosphere appeared in his sight, and hanging in the middle of the reddish canvas was the bright blood red moon. He stopped himself from jumping in the air to get a better view of what was happening, but he stopped himself as he wasn''t aware of what was going. His leg moved as his figure flashed through a few streets. The more he moved, the more he doubted his eyes as he knew that there were skeletons in those places. His heart thumped through his chest as he felt that the matter was too strange, way too strange.

    "I would have never thought that at some point I''d hope to find one of those white bastards¡­", he exclaimed as he thought about the constant time he had to spend while surrounded by the continuous waves of white skeleton soldiers. His legs began taking him to the spot he had used the most, and before long, the plaza appeared in his sight. His eyebrow dropped as he turned serious. In the middle of the plaza where he had been fighting for days, not a single speck of bones or scrap of skulls could be found by his eyes. He advanced forward a few more meters before he noticed that the construct that had been furthermore destroyed during the fights had been replaced.

    "I know that this is a game¡­ But I can''t help but find this odd.", as soon as those words left his lips, a vortex appeared out of nowhere. And from its sinister insides came out a hand, a skeleton hand to be more precise. Its color was dark like the vortex, and if Fell hadn''t sensed movement, he wouldn''t have even noticed the hand pop out from the vortex. Then a long string of laugher left the vortex and boomed through the plaza, Fell found the laughter eerie and couldn''t help but take a step back after hearing it.

    The system''s notification that he had been waiting for finally appeared in front of him.

    ''Congratulation on enduring the trial by fire, endless waves!''

    ''To complete the trial by fire, the user Stroke only needs to defeat the boss!''

    After swiftly reading the notification, Fell breathed out as he gazed at the boss that was being summoned by the vortex. He knew that although the individual strength of the skeleton soldier was ridiculously low, it definitely wouldn''t be the same for the boss. He filled his lungs from the surrounding air before expelling it and repeated the action several times. The action soothed his mind, and he soon resumed his focused state after a few breaths. He waited with his sword in hand as he couldn''t help but feel anticipation while watching the boss get out of the vortex.

    From the size of its hand, he knew that the skeleton would topple him when it came to the size of their body. Although it wouldn''t be a huge difference like it was with Karukobi, it might still cause him some trouble as he wasn''t sure about the boss''s movement speed, his strength, his range, and so many other variables. The fight hadn''t even begun but Fell was already gathering any useful information he could get. Soon enough, before the boss could even leave the vortex, he already had a fighting plan.

    "Although I''m somewhat tired¡­ I can''t afford to risk it by trying to end it fast! Lunging forward without thinking will cost me too much.", he thought while seeing the boss''s torso appear after his dark bony arm left the vortex. "I''ll fight him while avoiding overstepping inside of his range, during the fight I''ll gather enough information about his strength, speed and intelligence!", he knew that the system wouldn''t drop a dumb monster as a boss but still wanted to try and see if that was the case.

    A few seconds passed as the wind blew away the dust that laid on the plaza. Fell''s sight never strayed far from the vortex, and he was fully locked on the bony frame that was leaving the vortex. Soon enough, both of his legs fell on the ground; the ground shook as his weight cracked the fragile floor of the plaza. Then the vortex seamlessly disappeared into the void, disappearing as quietly as it appeared.

    There stood a two and a half meters tall giant skeleton. A crimson colored armor was donned on his body, and on his waist stood two gigantic scimitars. His posture was relaxed and Fell could swear that he could see a smile on the skull of the skeleton. Fell didn''t dare to take a step lightly as he didn''t know the skeleton''s capacity, but that wasn''t the only reason. Although the unknown was scary, what truly made Fell unable to engage the boss was its posture. He stood there relaxed; he didn''t take any martial form and didn''t seem to be ready to fight. But Fell felt as if he attacked from any angle, the skeleton giant could punish him effortlessly.

    "His defenses seem open, but this feeling that I can''t brush off¡­ It''s as if I can''t attack him!?" Fell mumbled while clenching his sword tightly in his hand.

 Chapter 133 Trial By Fire Part Four

    The skull of the glossy black skeleton turned towards Fell, and a light appeared in the void of his eye socket. An ominous blinding glow with the same color as the crimson colored moon intensified for a few seconds before it died down. A soft but piercing fire hung quietly inside of his eye sockets, it hovered in the state of nearly disappearing but seemed to have tenacious resilience. The scenery gave an even more hellish vibe to Fell.

    Suddenly, his hands moved toward his waist. The movement might have been simple, but Fell could swear that there was a kind of beauty in its execution, a beauty born from relentless training and millions of executions. Fell didn''t know if the bony figure in front of him had been modeled from a known figure, but this simple execution of a drawing technique left a deep, lasting image in his psyche. For a split second, he even forgot about the danger that would befall on him as the giant skeleton smoothly drew his scimitars.

    Fell regained his senses the moment two crescent moon shaped blades appeared in his sight, a shining red light was reflected on their edges, and Fell immediately sensed that an immediate attack was aiming at his neck. He had been standing quite a distance away from the dark shining skeleton and had slightly dropped his guard. Thankfully his mind alarmed him with dozens of signals as he knew that if he didn''t move, impending doom would fall on him. He stepped back in a split second, sending his body hurling a few meters away. But this act didn''t calm his alarmed mind. He knew that something was wrong, terribly wrong. However, he had no means to predict his opponent''s attack. He tried to calm his mind by reminding himself that he had faced Karukobi''s impressive long range cuts, the moment he thought about it, the attack from the skeleton was launched.

    It was two simple swipes of scimitars; the bladed weapons smoothly cut through the air without producing any sound. The moment the action was executed, Fell felt the space in front of the shining skeleton fluctuate for a second before it died down. His senses were sending him constant alarm as he immediately understood that the skeleton''s attack wasn''t comparable to Karukobi''s at all; one relied on a fast drawing technique to compress the air blade into thin lines that could travel a distance. While the other was too soft to rely on air pressure.

    All of a sudden, Fell felt the air around him fluctuate, and even as he senses told him that there was nothing behind him, his sword flew at his back and came in contact with something. The thing that Fell''s sword touched was beyond sharp, and Fell couldn''t help but draw a sharp breath as he tried to divert the attack to his side. He managed to redirect the hidden attack with difficulty as he had to react on the spot, and ended up with a deep cut near his rib cage. Thankfully he had acted quickly, or he might have ended up with more than a cut on his side. From the short contact with the skeleton''s attack, he knew that his avatar''s body was far from being resilient to support any direct damage from the skeleton''s strikes.

    "What the hell was that!?" he thought as he hissed a cold breath. His mind swiftly resumed the scene in his mind in a split second, and he quickly assembled the puzzle. "That bastard can cut through space!" he blurted out loud. At the same moment he spoke, the dark skeleton moved again and his bladed weapon were swiped again. Only this time, his limbs flashed twice in front of him. It was the same scenario but twice as deadly.

    Knowing that the attack traveled through space, Fell swiftly shut down his thoughts and fully focused on sensing the fluctuations in the nearby space. Although he had a tendency to think a lot during his fights, he knew when to think and when to act. Now that he had understood his opponent''s mystical means of attacking, he only needed to get used to the spatial fluctuation that his cuts caused when traveling through the air nearby. Thankfully as a cultivator, he had already developed a very basic understanding of space. And although he was very far from being capable of reproducing the skeleton''s attack, perceiving it was a whole different story and was clearly in his range of capacity.

    But even with his preparation, he had underestimated the skeleton far too much. Instead of appearing from a single spot around Fell, the four strikes the skeleton had executed appeared in different spots in the space around Fell. Although he had sensed them, the fact that he had to defend himself from different angles while sensing the surrounding space made the action difficult to execute. What was even worst was the timing of the four space cuts. Instead of appearing one after the other with a clear rhythm, The skeleton boss made them challenging to read. A single mistake would mean the loss of a limb for Fell. Or even worse, the end of the trial by fire.

    Fell''s eyes glowed in a crazed light as he felt the four cuts appear in the space surrounding him, all of his escape routes had been cut, and the skeleton had forced him into facing them. His mind boomed during the stressful event, and he roared with a heaven-defying howl as his whole body moved to defend himself. "I''m not going to stop here!!" he thought as his will to live kindled his fighting spirit.

    His hand executed dozen of sword strike while his body rotated near-instantly, adding strength to his strokes. Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa! Sounds of steal hitting steal in repetition resounded for a split second through the large plaza. He breathed roughly as he managed to repel the final cut with difficulty; blood poured from a slit that appeared in his hand and splashed on the ground of the plaza.

 Chapter 134 Trial By Fire Part Five

    "Fuck!?" he thought as he swiftly understood his mistake. With a disheveled head filled with dirty white hair, Fell tried to control his chaotic emotion while gazing at his bleeding hand. Although he had received damage during the attack, he had managed to block most of the skeleton boss''s attack and had come to learn a very important truth about his attack that traveled through space. Not only didn''t the weapon travel through the space as Fell had kept his sight locked on dark bony figure during the execution of attacks, what was truly traveling through space was the cut and the intent of the bladed weapon user.

    What had damaged Fell''s hand wasn''t the cut, but the intent that inherently existed inside the attack. Even if the strike was parried or blocked, if the intent wasn''t handled correctly, it could alone deal severe damage to the opponent. A few drops of blood slid along Fell''s hand before landing on the ground, his eyes were locked on the skeleton figure, and he didn''t bat an eyelid as he looked for the skeleton''s next attack.

    The skeleton boss moved again. His bony hand was softly grasping his blades as if he was a painter. And with a soft stance, he drew several strokes in a split second. The blood in Fell''s hand hit the ground in a rhythmic pattern; the sound from the drop hitting the dusty floor of the plaza resounded through the surrounding space as a deadly silence has taken over the world. As soon as he felt the space fluctuate around the skeleton boss, Fell moved to avoid being corned again and began running around the black bony figure of the boss. He dashed around the plaza with a fast pace while his bloodied hand kept dropping a few drops every second, the skeleton boss didn''t make him wait too as he began hurling one attack after the other towards him.

    Fell executed Ghostly Stutter to turn himself unpredictable and spent the rest of his focus on analyzing the skeleton boss''s attack. Long streaks and gashes appeared on the ground around Fell. Some extended a few meters in length and were deep enough for a human to slide in. He calmly looked at the skeleton boss while gathering information about the specs of his spatial attack. He wanted to know the time it took for the cut to travel through space and appear, the speed at which it appeared, and finally, the different angles that could be changed when he executed strokes with his scimitar.

    Numerous information were recorded in his mind, and he even used the dropping blood from his hand injury to acquire the rhythm of the skeleton''s attack. A few drops would hit the ground every few seconds, and he managed to use it to his advantage as a means to unveil more information about the mystical rhythm of his attack. The more time passed, the more brazen Fell turned as his senses got better at seeing through the spatial attack.

    From having to senses the attack the moment it appeared, he began deducting the cut''s appearance based on the attack''s speed and the martial form that the skeleton boss used when executing it. And with time, his deduction grew more and more precise. Although the fight was taking much more time than he had anticipated, rushing in would end up with his death, and during his focused state in a battle that danced on the edge of life and death, being tired meant nothing. On top of that, being focused on his current action made all of the past fatigue disappear, as if it never existed.

    Obviously, that wasn''t exactly true since as soon as his second wind would disappear, he would face impending doom. Thus as he grew used to the boss''s attacks, he began approaching it with the intent of dealing damage to it. Constantly running away would only elongate the fight, and definitely wouldn''t secure his victory. Thus the need to take a risk by approaching it. Even if he wasn''t aware of the rest of the boss''s skill set, he would rather take a shot at the boss and risk his chances that way than ending up tiring himself by waiting too long.

    With a sword in his hand, he evaded several blows that were aimed at him and began tightening the invisible circle he was running around. If the spatial cut could be evaded, he would either slow down his pace or accelerate and rarely went for the option of blocking or parrying it. Even by growing used to it, he knew the danger of staying rooted in one place and had been using ghostly stutter ever since then. Although his will resources were reducing at a fast pace due to the constant usage of a movement technique, he knew that the trade had to be taken as it secured that he wouldn''t take damage during the approach.

    Soon enough, after what seemed like a minute or two of trial, he finally stepped inside the range of the skeleton boss. As he stood in front, he felt the tremendous pressure that was suffusing from the skeleton''s body and couldn''t help but be impressed by its sheer size. Karukobi might have been bigger when it came to size, but the sheer pressure and aura that came out of the skeleton''s body were too different. One was calm like an unmoving sea, and his blade cut thinner than the line of water surface. Although dangerous, his swift attacks could still be seen with the naked eye. The skeleton boss, on the other hand, exuded an ominous slaughter aura, one that told Fell that many opponents had fallen to his technique and that one mistake meant that he would join the pile of bodies he stood upon.

    "I''ve been cutting your kind for days!", Thought Fell as his grip tightened around the sword in his bloodied hand. "Pay Back Time!" with that in his mind; he stepped forward with his sword following shortly after his step.

 Chapter 135 Cold Snap Part One

    Bolstered by the fact he could finally take back some of his inner anger on the skeleton boss, he breathed out sharply as he drew his sword straight toward the boss'' skull. He couldn''t help but see a smug face on it and felt like smashing it as soon as he attained his range of attack. His sword pierced through the air and, aided with his deep seated hatred for the skeleton kind; he ironically achieved one of the fastest pierces he ever executed.

    The skeleton boss didn''t let Fell do as he wanted, and as soon as the young cultivator entered his attacking zone, the flame in his eye socket intensified and began burning brighter than ever. Contrary to what one might have expected, the surrounding temperature didn''t increase; it was even the opposite. As his sword moved toward his opponent''s skull, he felt the nearby temperature drop at an incredible rate. By the time his sword was going to make contact, he felt through his blade the extreme temperature that was exuded from the skeleton boss''s body.

    "Another power!?" he thought as he swiftly stepped back due to the intense feeling of danger. During his retreat, he glanced at the hand that was grasping his sword. The blood that had been flowing from his injury was frozen ¡ª no more drops of blood hitting the ground. "Extreme coldness¡­", he assessed as he saw the change his body endured in that slight moment when he attacked.

    "This is going to be much more difficult than I thought¡­", he mumbled as he felt that the current situation had put his back against the wall. He sighed before softly whispering, "Sun Above.". A blinding light took over the edge of his sword, and in a split second, his bladed weapon had turned into an incandescent flame, lighting the surroundings of the plaza. He had been avoiding using any special moves due to his tired state, but now he had come to face the harsh truth. If he ever wanted to come close to victory, he would need to go all out and reveal his hand before his opponent.

    "Let''s see if my flame won''t pierce through your shield of ice!", as soon as he spoke, his leg stomped on the ground in front of him. He pierced through the short space that separated them and appeared in front of the skeleton boss with a burning will. He knew that he needed an utmost conviction in his own capacities. If there existed even a seed of doubt that he couldn''t pierce through the skeleton''s defense, then that was over for him. Even his intent, as a swordsman, would be severely hindered by the experience.

    "Die!", Fell voice turned hoarse as he shoved his entire self in his sword strike. His whole body''s weight and momentum were added to his strike, and in the final moment before the confrontation, he executed ''Solary Dive'' to empower his blow even more. He was truly going for broke. If with all of this he didn''t achieve any decent result, then that was over for him, and that would mean the end of the trial by fire.

    His speed more than doubled before the impact adding even more momentum. His figure turned into a blinding flame for a split second before crashing straight on with the skeleton giant.

    Boom! The ground of the plaza was leveled the moment Fell crashed onto his opponent. A giant mushroom filled with dust and scraps rose after the impact. In the middle of the cloud, Fell stood in front of the giant soldier. The extreme coldness from his foe seemed to freeze time itself, and their confrontation lasted more than it should have been. Fell fought the malicious ice with his blazing sword and sheer burning will. A swordsman only needed confidence, and Fell had plenty of confidence in cutting the skeleton in front of him.

    Just the after shock that had slipped through the skeleton''s icy zone had been enough to level the plaza. What Fell''s avatar was receiving was the full strength of the after shock condensed by the skeleton''s absolute coldness. When it came to swordsmanship, the ancients who had paved the way had found long ago that confidence played a large role when it came to cutting solid matter. If there existed even a sliver of doubt in the sword user''s heart, then he wouldn''t even be able to cut a simple piece of wood.

    Confidence in one''s sheer ability, and confidence to cut through anything. That was the way of the immortals who used the sword as their main mean of attacking. Although hexes and technique always came into play, what was genuinely relevant when speaking about talented swordsman was their intent to cut through any existing matter in the universe. If Gods stood upon their path, they would cut. If Devils stood upon their path, they would cut. If Demons stood upon their path, they would cut. Cut! Cut! Cut! Cut! Cut Heaven Itself. That was the ancient way of swordsmanship.

    Although Fell had lacked an instructor in the sword way, he had always trusted in his guts when it came to his learning principle and knew that confidence and intent played a major role in the way of the sword. Through his sword, he had come into contact with laws, and through his sword, he had achieved feats that he would never have dared doing. Although Anzar''s teaching had been a big boost in his cultivation path, in the end, the Massin Martial Art had long been turned into a Sword Art. A sword Art that was Fell''s own work of sweat and blood.

    He never feared anything, except the fear of being disappointed at himself for being weak-willed. And today, his burning will was helping him in the tremendous task that stood in front of him; he had never faced a stronger opponent than the skeleton boss. Being capable of executing sword strike through space itself was an abstruse concept that would only be prayed openly by the strongest in the world.

 Chapter 136 Cold Snap Part Two

    Fell didn''t have the strength nor the luxury to think as all of his being was poured into the current sword attack. With his sword as a vanguard, he had turned his whole body into the sharpest material that existed in his mind. Although he stood in a deadlock with the skeleton giant, he knew that the chances of cutting through him weren''t impossible. If there even existed a chance of defeating him, he would take the opportunity right here and wouldn''t run away from failure.

    Sharper. Sharper. Sharper. His intent surrounded his body as he ignited his will to pierce through the wall that stood in front of him. The absolute cold that was exuded by the skeleton hindered his will and made his body feel like he had fallen in the ninth circle of Hell. Going for broke was his way, and he preferred dying that losing his way of cultivating and living. He had forgotten that he was currently Stroke and that all the ongoing events were happening inside of a trial by fire inside of Battle League. His mind blocked his thought from reaching common sense, and that made it possible for him to ignore any thought that might have caused him to hesitate.

    If he reminded himself that it was just a game and that it truly wouldn''t matter if he lost. Defeat was actually not that bad of an ending, and all in all, it was just a trial by fire. That weakness would consume his spirit, and his sword way would forever be hindered from this loss. Thankfully his thoughts were completely shut down, and the only thing he thought about was piercing through the wall that separated him from slaying the giant skeleton.

    Inch by inch, his sword advanced forward and after what seemed like an eternity of enduring the icy coldness of the trial''s boss. He felt his sword plunge deeper and deeper into the giant wall of coldness, and as he advanced further toward victory, the freezing intent that came from the skeleton intensified. Fell heard a constant buzzing sound as his will fought against the skeleton''s deadly intent. As Fell had initiated the attack, his momentum was clearly more significant than the skeleton''s defense. But that also meant that his will was burning at a faster rate. It wasn''t just his will that was taking a toll from the deadlock, but his avatar''s body was breaking down at an absurd rate. Even when sheltered by his fire-based sword art and with his burning will to cut through the skeleton, his body began freezing little by little, and the color of his skin acquired a palish blue hue.

    That didn''t stop him at all, and on the contrary, forced him to push through with more conviction. If he was going to die, then that bastard''s head would be the first to hit the ground. That was his logic, and if it wasn''t for this absurd train of thought, he would have lost long ago against the skeleton. The level of their will and the difference in the laws they perceived and understood were too far apart. Not even the fact that just the difference in their body''s strength and resiliency could completely change the fairness of the fight.

    Cracks began appearing in the air surrounding him, and the wall that stood tall in front of him finally began breaking down after being invaded by his burning sword. Bolstered by the newfound hope, he doubled in efforts, and with a final push, he heard a sound similar to thousands of mirrors breaking apart. Suddenly, his body regained his freedom of motion as he felt blood rush through his avatar''s vein. His mouth opened as a heaven defying howl escaped from his throat. Anger, resentment, joy of having broken down the absolute coldness mixed together as they supported his following strike.

    One movement. One sword strike that pierced through space at a speed Fell had never dared to imagine appeared in the plaza. The cloud of dust that had risen due to the earlier impact was swiftly cut by the sword revealing what was happening to the rest of the empty world. A head flew high in the sky; it was a black skull and was clearly part of the skeleton boss''s body. Then before the head began descending toward the ground, another sword strike left Fell''s hand and swiftly dissected the skeleton into two.

    The moment his sword cut through the skeleton boss''s body, Fell felt tremendous bliss overtake his body. He felt his sword slash every particle of the skeleton''s bony frame; this memory would forever be ingrained in his mind and would forever help him push through his limit. Before the skeleton''s body hit the ground, his sword dropped as he threw his head to the back. With clenched hands, he roared toward the sky, and his voice boomed through the empty world. He roared his pain, his joy, and finally, his success. Before long, the roar turned into a sigh, and his eyes finally dropped on the figure on the ground. Thud! A shining black skull hit the ground near the skeleton corpse and soon enough began disappearing as it disintegrated into coal like particles.

    Tears rushed down his face as his tired mind was overwhelmed by the variety of emotions he was going through. His surroundings appeared through his eyes with utmost clarity, and he felt as if he had broken through a major milestone in his life. His hand moved toward his face, and he wiped his tears before stepping forward toward the giant skeleton corpse. After moving a few steps, his leg failed him as he fell on his butt on the ground. And every single fiber of his body began shaking as he began feeling the backlash from pushing through his limit during the fight.

    "This isn''t reality¡­ This isn''t reality¡­", he repeated in his mind before managing to calm the wave of pain that was assaulting his mind.

 Chapter 137 Cold Snap Part Three

    After what felt like an eternity of pain, he finally managed to gather his senses and lifted himself with difficulty from the ground. His eyes were red from the multitude of veins that had busted due to overexerting himself. His throat was sore from screaming on top of his lung several times. He started to calmly look around, looking out for the vortex that would take him away from the world of the trial by fire. But after a few seconds, a worried look appeared on his eyes as he began turning left and right in search of the vortex.

    Then his eyes crossed the skeleton boss''s corpse for a split second, before continuing to look around the plaza. "Maybe I need to go to the zone where I spawned.", as he decided that nothing was happening in the plaza. He turned around and began leaving, but as he stepped a few feet away from the corpse, he felt change happen behind him. He swiftly turned around and was shocked as he noticed that the corpse had disappeared entirely. In its stead was a soft round pearl that quietly hovered a few inches above the ground. Fell quickly saw that it was a pill. It was spotless from any imperfection and was glossy black like the corpse of the skeleton. As he approached the object, Fell noticed a few runic marks that produced a soft light that shined the space surrounding the pill.

    His weary eyes looked at the object with curiosity, and as he stepped forward with the intent to grab the pill, it flew toward him. He didn''t have the time to bat an eyelid before the round black pill instantly crossed the space and reappeared right in front of the middle of Fell''s eyebrow. "This movement!?" he explained before the pill connected with his head, and he was stopped from finishing his train of thought. The moment he saw space fluctuate when the pill crossed the distance between them, he was immediately reminded of the way the skeleton boss did the same. But he didn''t even have the time to think about it now as his brain had black outed. The pill dissolved the moment it contacted his skull, and he began falling toward the ground.

    A vortex seamlessly appeared under him; Fell disappeared from the world of the trial by fire. His body hit the floor tile of a fighting platform; he was transported back to his mountain peak, where he laid unconscious while absorbing the pill''s content. The pill wasn''t filled with medicinal energy, nor was it beneficial for his avatar, and as this was a game where there existed equality between the base strength of all avatars. It wasn''t surprising that the creator had made it like it, or else all concept of fairness would disappear, and the game''s focus would no longer be on techniques and skills.

    The mysterious pill he had acquired after defeating the skeleton boss was the reward that was given to the player who would manage to complete the trial by fire. A reward that could raise cities, and cause greed in the heart of the most righteous man. A mysterious technique that could teach one laws that governed the universe, and in the case of Fell, the mysterious pill he acquired was related to the spatial technique the black skeleton used. Currently, he couldn''t act nor move as massive changes were happening in his mind. Incredible complex contents were being shoved inside of his mind in one go, and although it was similar to the way he had learned his cultivation technique. This time, the content was thousands of times more complex and abstruse.

    But that didn''t mean that he could immediately use the technique as it first needed to be trained. And as a mysterious technique that dabbled with the law of space, it wouldn''t be easy even to attain the first rank. When crossing that vortex to enter the trial by fire, he would have never dared to believe that his gain would be massive. In his mind, just crossing swords against the skeleton boss was a reward in itself. It gave him the opportunity to fight an opponent so strong that his mind began confusing the game with real life. Those were the kind of experiences he was looking for when looking for a way to train himself, and when he had dealt the finishing blow, he had already felt that it was the ultimate reward he would hope for. Ironically, now he couldn''t even feel joy from receiving the game''s gift and found himself unable to even think due to the mass information transfer.

    "He did make it through!?" a loud voice resounded through the empty valley before it disappeared. The AI that delved in the thousands upon thousands of mountain peaks that made the tutorial ground couldn''t help but be shaken by that. He knew why the youth in front of him laid still on the floor, as he had already seen occur on rare occasions.

    The AI was as old as the game itself, and wasn''t just taking care of one mountain peak but had divided itself into thousands of entities to help the players. Its existence was similar to a tree that extended all over the world of the tutorial''s second phase, with each root leading to a mountain peak where it would attach part of itself. Thus, being the existence that had seen the most users in , the mountain knew the importance of his success in the trial by fire.

    "How many made it through during their placement matches!?" the mountain thought as its memory reversed through time. It thought about the thousands of geniuses that entered the trial by fire; most of them left it with extreme satisfaction as they valued experience more than anything. But only dozens of individuals left the training ground unconscious, and as someone who was part of the system itself, it could detect the flow of data that traveled through the virtual world.

 Chapter 138 Cold Snap Part Four

    "What a talent¡­", the mountain thought as it gazed through the virtual world to watch Fell''s spirit receive the mysterious technique.

    The trial by fire was developed as a means to train individuals, there existed dozens of training ground, and most of them were cleared by the majority of the player base in . But the Endless Battlefield was a different kind of trial by fire; it was the hardest of them all and could only be entered when one was in the middle of their placement matches. That meant that one not only had to win his first three matches, but he also needed to ask the mountain about a training ground to further develop before continuing his fights.

    Just those facts alone made it rare for someone to enter the Endless Battlefield. As for someone who survived through the waves upon waves of enemies, fighting the trial by fire''s boss who would vastly outrange the avatar in its base statistics, with mysterious techniques that ended most of the players who fought it in one blow. These facts made the acquisition of the mysterious technique an even greater deal than winning the five matches.

    Although the reward given to one who fought through his five first matches couldn''t be underestimated. The achievement for that wasn''t to be belittled as it meant that the game itself would take notice of you. The company behind Battle League was inclined to helping the cultivation era develop, and nurturing talented geniuses was the way it used to do so: by turning fighting and cultivation techniques into a game, and by making it turn into one of the leading games in the universe. It had the priority when it came to nurturing unknown geniuses.

    As for the ones who were already part of major clans or families, although they wouldn''t ban them from playing the game, they wouldn''t help to nurture their path through immortality either.

    The universe was filled with hundreds upon hundreds of major clans, and with them came organizations and sects that live in seclusion in certain planets. Hidden from the eyes of the majority, and avoided mundane contact with the society. The only way to meet them was in the case if one was fated with them.

    The mountain focused on its parts that existed inside of Fell''s peak and watched him as he quietly accepted the trial by fire''s reward. It didn''t need to inform it''s higher up as they were always monitoring the game. And after many years of taking care of the young geniuses, the mountain enjoyed watching them progress as much as they did themselves.

    Back in New Casablanca, where Fell''s real body was still laying on the metallic cerebral link that was in his room. Several days had passed since he had entered the trial by fire, and Tahlya had come through the emerald door of his room several times. At first, she wanted to insult him and curse him for having made her do such a shameful thing. But as she saw him constantly use the cerebral link, she started using his room as a place where she came to relax.

    Like today, she would quietly sit on the couch and would gain a few minutes of rest from her work in the battle center. As someone who was part of the company, she was aware of many things that were well known by the player base. But even with that, she didn''t understand how the youth that laid in front of her could spend that much time in a virtual reality world.

    "Doesn''t he need to eat?" she thought as she knew that he hadn''t left that place for days. Even among the top ranker of the city, most of them would take a few breaks in a day, be it to fill their stomach with a meal or even cleanse their body from the fatigue of constantly playing. But the youth in front of her was similar to a machine, and he had been inside Battle League for days without taking a single second of break. "Maybe it''s because he is a cultivator¡­", she thought as she always tends to forget it.

    She had met many cultivators throughout her life, and most of them had to be greeted as guests in the battle center. Their personalities were distant and aloof and made it clear that there was a major difference between them and the rest of the mortal realm. However, the youth in front of her wasn''t the same, and his easy-going personality made it impossible for her mind to link him with the other cultivator. Even when she was angry about his actions, and hated how he acted. She still couldn''t help but think about him in a positive light when she thought about him.

    And as days passed, and as her frustration deepened, she couldn''t help but feel her heart be bloated from strange feelings. Feelings that she had forgotten and that she had crushed with her own will. The reason why she didn''t do the same with Fell was due to his status as a cultivator; she knew that his stay in the city wouldn''t be eternal, and when he would finish his matter here, he would leave the city.

    She couldn''t help but sigh as she imagined how a cultivator''s life could be, traveling through places where mortals would die in second and in places so far she couldn''t even imagine how they looked like. A few minutes passed as she fantasized about it before coming back to reality. The emotions that danced in her mind disappeared in a split second, replaced by a cold, indifferent look before she got up from the couch. She quietly stepped toward the door and left to continue her work as her shift didn''t end yet.

    "What a bastard!" she couldn''t help but say with gritted teeth before she shut the door behind her. Her figure disappeared through one of the many corridors in the battle center.

 Chapter 139 Cold Snap Part Five

    Blank-Faced Joe sat in front of a desk in a room of his mansion. His emotionless eyes coldly gazed at the three objects that were on the desk; his hand moved as he grabbed one of the objects. It was a metallic craft with a smooth surface, the craftsmanship was exceptional, and it was in the shape of a key. His hand fiddled with the key a few seconds before putting it back on the deck. All along while playing with the object, an absent minded look was plastered on his face as he pondered on a few matters.

    Before long, he recollected himself and took out a chain that hung under his chest. On the chain was a key similar to the three others that were on the table, and without any hesitation, he put began putting the key on the chain before putting it around his neck. He then got up from his desk and walked out of the small office with a deadpan face. A few days had passed since he had tortured the two generals he had in his basement into giving him their key''s location, and with the gift from the mysterious figure, he had managed to gather three more keys.

    Among the seven key that were given to each general of the Filthy Jade Palace, he had gathered four of them and had gained the majority in the ruling of the underground business. But leading wasn''t his only objective, and even if his word now couldn''t be denied by the other general of the Inner Court, he had to end it all as time was ticking. Ever since he received the information that New Casablanca had been locked in their crosshairs, he had begun this ordeal in the most secretive way.

    To the other three generals, it might simply have looked like he had gained true power in Filthy Jade Palace. Seizing everything for himself and reducing the rest of the member into his subjects wasn''t that strange of a matter in the mob like organization. He knew that the three others would constantly be on their guards, those three had climbed through a pile of corpses and weren''t like the weaponry general who had clear weak points.

    They had ruled their business for years and were known for being infamous as they dealt with the organization''s shadiest businesses. Selling body parts, taking care of assassination contracts through the name of Nine Nine, and controlling the city''s underground casino. He knew that those three generals were powerful, and even if one of them fell, the others would tighten their defenses even more. Making it difficult for him to gather the three keys in a short period of time; the only way was to take the three of them down at the same time to avoid any complication. But that in itself was a difficult act, even for the well known scheming Blank-Faced Joe.

    As he muzzled his brain into finding a solution, he walked through his mansion, and as he was going to serve himself a drink to refresh his mind, he felt a ringing come from his pocket. His hand moved methodically and pressed a dial while grabbing a bottle at the same time.

    "What''s going on?" he exclaimed while opening the cap.

    As he began pouring the liquid into a cup, he heard a panicked voice rush through his phone. "Boss! They are dead, the three other generals have been found dead in their own beds.", his hand shook, and he spilled liquid on the table.

    "What were the circumstances?", even with his body clearly showing signs of distress, the tone of his voice was like usual. His subordinate didn''t notice anything and continued his report. "They were found in their own beds, their bodies were intact, but they were clearly dead!?", the voice of his subordinate was shacking as it knew the severity of it.

    The generals were cultivator, strong individuals that could hold their own in a battle, and their mansions were guarded with rows and rows of guards. Someone who could infiltrate their home without alerting anyone, and who could kill them without inflicting any injury on the body was strong beyond their knowledge. "It was as if they had lost their will to live¡­ As If their soul itself had left their bodies!"

    Silence took over in the discussion, and Blank-Faced Joe stood still without moving a single inch. It continued after a few seconds before expressing himself to his subordinate, "What about the keys?". As he waited for an answer, his heart beat faster in his chest as he had an intuition about the current matter. The drug general had been killed, and the key was found on his body. Without even hearing the answer from his underling, he knew that there was a big chance that their keys hadn''t been taken away.

    "The key was left on their chest, it wasn''t attached or anything and simply laid on top of their cold bodies.", his subordinate paused for a second before speaking. "Boss¡­ I feel that this matter is too strange.", he stopped himself from adding that Blank-Faced Joe might be the next target as he was the sole living general.

    "Leave the bodies there, and get me the keys as soon as possible.", he said in an unusual hurried tone before closing the communication. He then sighed before emptying the glass in front of him down his throat. He repeated the action several times before closing, throwing the bottle on the wall. He then moved back to his office and approached a bookcase that was close to a wall and took one book from it. Several clicking sounds resounded in the room, and after a few seconds, a narrow path revealed itself.

    He stepped inside and, after walking for a few meters, appeared in a cubic shaped room. Rare were the ones that knew of this hidden location, and even his underlings weren''t aware of it.

 Chapter 140 A Masked Deception Part One

    Blank-Face Joe''s steps resounded in the hidden place he had built into his office. He had been using this location whenever he had needed a place where he could calmly focus, and today he needed it more than ever. The last time he had come here, he had used the hidden location to safely breakthrough in his cultivation techniques.

    But today, he just needed a quiet place where he wouldn''t be disturbed by anyone. After entering walking a few meters inside of the narrow secret passage, he arrived in a cubic room that contained a few furniture. In the middle of the room was a mattress that had been put directly on the floor, and on the side was a small desk that was put against a wall, directly in front of a few screens that recorded what was happening all over his mansion.

    As he wasn''t going to meditate, he walked past the mattress and sat in front of the desk before lighting the different screens that were in front of him. As the general that dealt with the information business, he couldn''t be unprepared in his own house and had already installed dozens of hidden cameras all over his mansion. He had a few ideas about the intention of the general assassin, but those weren''t based on any concrete information and only came from his guts.

    Thus, he waited there for a dozen minutes while keeping a look on the different monitors in front of him. Not even thirty minutes after that, he saw his underlings arrive, and he prepared himself to leave for Filthy Jade Palace''s building. With the seven keys in his hand, he could finally take open the treasury of the organization. The treasury contained the infamous Pandora''s Box and the millions of resources the organization had gathered during its existence. As he knew that the days of the city were counted, he needed to gather the most valuable resources before getting out of here, before it turned into a giant mess.

    On the wall opposite to the one that contained the different monitor was a strange rifle that hung on it. As he was leaving the room, he looked at it before deciding that he couldn''t leave it here. It was a weapon he had acquired during a secret trade with an otherworldly organization they had been dealing with. The weapon in itself wasn''t anything extraordinary in the universe, and could even be considered as a common oddity in the cities there. But in New Casablanca, the gap between the level of technology made it rare and caused Blank-Faced Joe to doubt before taking it.

    After taking the photon rifle from the wall, he pressed a dial that was on the stock, near the trigger, and a few clicking sounds emanated from the rifle as it began folding and shifting. After a few seconds passed, Blank-Faced Joe looked at the gun in his hand as he couldn''t help but praise the state of art technology that the alien civilization had developed. His hand moved as he smoothly shoved the gun in a shoulder holster he was wearing, and left the secret room in his office. After a few minutes, he gathered a few important documents he had in his office before putting everything in the middle of the room.

    Swoosh! Blank-Faced Joe briskly started a fire and began throwing the sensible information he had gathered over the years. He had done many things in the Core, and now that it was time to leave, he was making sure that nothing here could lead to him. After a few minutes of work, a massive fire had appeared in the middle of his office and was beginning to eat away the rest of the furniture he had. He turned away and walked out of his office before closing the door back. He didn''t care about putting the fire away, and if the mansion burned, then it would serve his purpose as the house contained several traces of his passage. He didn''t know if burning it away would make his traces disappear entirely, but it could still serve as a defensive means to secure his tracks.

    "Time to end it all¡­", he thought as he walked out through the door of his mansion. He saw his underlings standing outside, and they calmly looked at him as he began moving toward them. "You have the keys?", he asked the few men that stood in front of him. They nodded in unison, and a satisfied smile appeared on Joe''s pale face.

    "Let''s go.", he exclaimed before beginning his walk toward Filthy Jade Palace. He wasn''t aware of the news of the general''s death had spread, but even if the lowly gangs learned that they wouldn''t be able to hinder his advance and the valuable loot was in the treasury, that was locked and needed the seven keys to open. Even if they tried to bomb the walls down, the building would fall apart before they could evade, creating a dent in the protective walls that sheltered the treasury.

    And even if they managed to do that, he would be sure that the secretive general killer wouldn''t stand around while seeing them loot the place. He already had a few hunches about the hidden identity of the killer, but as they didn''t contact him, he couldn''t make baseless conclusions on the matter.

    "Chances are that the organization is falling down.", he said while passing through a narrow passage that led to the organization''s building. "But do not fear comrades as today we will take what is our own!" he exclaimed as he felt that the morale of his troops was low. They had been following Blank-Faced Joe for a few years, and after having called him boss for so long, they had started to know him. And they were aware of the strangeness of his actions lately. Richard was one of his most faithful underlings and had even come to consider Joe as a close friend.

 Chapter 141 A Masked Deception Part Two

    Richard had followed Joe for years and had fought by his sides in so many battles as they brawled to conquer the city''s underground business. He didn''t know what was happening, but he was aware that changes were going to happen in the near future, changes that would reshape the face of the city.

    He regulated his breath while watching his boss''s back; he had done so several times in the past when he had been thinking in places where he shouldn''t have like during a mission or on a battlefield. After a few seconds, he managed to calm down, and couldn''t help but feel strangely happy that he was working under Blank-Faced Joe.

    "Although he seems scary, and to be honest, he truly is. He is also one of the most reliable guys I''ve met through my shitty life.", Richard couldn''t help but think while gazing at his boss''s broad back. He couldn''t help himself but feel pride, pride for following a respectable leader, and that feeling intensified now that his boss had Filthy Jade Palace for himself. "Now that I think about it¡­ Filthy Jade Palace was his idea¡­", he reminisced about the past as memory of that day resurfaced.

    During those times, the city had been much more dangerous than what It currently was. Gangs fought for respect and territory, and owning a business or not didn''t change anything as it could change owners overnight. If you weren''t strong enough or backed by a strong gang, then it was over for you. But even with those circumstances, people changed backers as if they changed shoes as gangs could fall in one night. And then they would rise back to life the next day. Territories changed hands as if they were goods that could be bargained. But it all changed when they came, the cultivation era interrupted their savage brawling and made them swear loyalty on their knee. Their gains would have been given to them as a tribute, and the rest of their life would have been senseless slavery for someone else''s gains.

    But he changed everything and had dared to talk to them in their face. No one had dared to do so as they had clearly shown the disdain they showed to the Core''s inhabitants. Blank-Faced Joe dealt with the impossible and struck a deal that they didn''t refuse. No one knew what he bargained, nor did they hear anything about the deal in itself. But the day afterward, the Core heard the birth of the Filthy Jade Palace. An organization that put the Core in order, and from the baseless crimes that were closer to empty savagery that ravaged the Core, it turned into a successful organized business.

    As he was lost in his thought and mindlessly followed his boss, Richard finally came back to his mind when he noticed the light that came from the familiar building. After a few seconds of walking, they came in front of the old hotel that was used as the general quarter for Filthy Jade Palace.

    They stopped as Blank-Faced Joe gazed at a few windows that were opened. An odd look appeared on his eyes as he sniffed a few times before turning to his subordinate.

    "You smell that, guys?" he asked as a smile appeared on his lips. The moment they saw that smile on his emotionless face, a shudder took a few members as the rest had waves of goosebumps traveled along with their bodies.

    "Blood!" he exclaimed as his incisors appeared during his savage grin. "Tonight, we bath in blood for one last time!", as he spoke, a gun appeared in his hand indicating to the rest that they should arm themselves.

    The group of armed individuals entered the building with calm steps, having already taken out their weapons, they aimed at every corner as they advanced inside the building. As soon as they entered, their nostrils were assaulted with a metallic taste that densely hung in the air of the building. Next was the bloodiest reception hall that explained the smell that assaulted their senses. Blank-Faced Joe''s subordinates were battle-hardened soldiers, and as soon as the hellish scene appeared in their sight, they swiftly bathed in the surrounding pressure as a focused glint appeared on their eyes.

    A laugh escaped from Blank-Faced Joe before he exclaimed, "Looks like they had quite the fun before we came! Then his emotions disappeared as he turned serious, "Whoever we meet, put a bullet between their eyes!". His order was short but concise; he then stopped losing time as he began advancing in the vanguard of his group. His gun in hand, he pushed through the reception hall filled with corpses of Filthy Jade Palace''s employee. He came across a few faces than he recognized, honest people that worked in a shady business. He knew it because he had made it possible for people who weren''t ready to work in shady dealing, and had created a logistic and management team that took care of the building. But even when meeting people he knew, his facial expression didn''t change and he only gazed at them for a split second before moving on.

    He arrived at the end of the reception hall and noticed that explosives had busted the elevator''s door. He ducked his head inside to take a peak and noticed that the machine was broken and couldn''t be used. With a sign from his head, he explained the impossibility to use it to his group before advancing toward the stairway.

    As soon as they arrived, he heard the wooden stairway creek, and he swiftly understood that someone was nearby. His finger moved as he took off the security from his weapon, and began aiming in front of him. Suddenly, a figure appeared from behind the staircase with a machete lifted high toward the ceiling. He only took a single step forward before meeting a bullet during his run; his body hit the ground with a thud before he stopped moving as he laid lifeless on the cold floor.

 Chapter 142 A Masked Deception Part Three

    The smell of gunpowder filled the space around them as they readied themselves for the incoming battle. A few soldiers under Blank-Faced Joe rushed forward with cross aiming at the stairs, a few seconds after that, bullets rained through the wooden staircase, and a pile of bodies began falling through them. No words were spoken by Joe, but his underlings were used to working together, and with a few movements of their bodies, they shut down every weak spot in their formation.

    With their fluid formation that had been sharpened through dozens of fights, and armed with rifles and other projectile base weapon, they advanced through the building while ravaging whoever met their passage. They began moving from floors to floors and cleaned them as they retook Filthy Jade Palace from the hands of the vultures. After a dozen minutes, another few layers of blood were added to the walls as Blank-Faced Joe and his team finished killing all the assailants in their current floor.

    They had been fighting together for years, and the assailants were only lowly punks that attacked Filthy Jade Place when they learned that six of the seven generals were dead. Their formation was rough and, compared to Blank-Face Joe''s team, they were toddlers with toys in their hands. Blank-Faced Joe stepped through the staircase that led to the last floor; his team followed closely behind him was covering any possible angle where they could be attacked from.

    After a few seconds filled with tension, their steps finally took them on the last floor, where they met one last round of assailants. Screens of bullets flew through the air as they fell on their opponents with heaven''s might; technology had turned humanity''s already deadly weapon even more powerful and precise. Very few guns like this one in the hands of Blank-Faced Joe was filled with alien technology, making it dozens of time more powerful than the ones in his subordinates'' hands.

    The leader of the assailants was the same, and in his arms was a cubic shaped metallic shell. In the middle of the gunfire rampage, he aimed it randomly toward Blank-Faced Joe''s crew and fired it. A blinding light escaped from the empty socket in the front of the gun, followed by the complete disappearance of any noise that came from the floor. A shockwave shook the building with the might of an earthquake followed by the reappearance of sound. An absurd tinnitus took over the ears of everyone in the room, and a few who didn''t have protection in their ears could be seen bleeding from their ears with a dumbfounded face. They hadn''t even been touched directly by the weapon, but the aftershock was still severe as their minds had been shocked still by the assault to their senses. As for the place where the cubic shaped weapon had been fired, it had simply turned into a mess of burned material and mushed bodies. Under the high temperature beam, their bodies had turned into a mixture of bones and innards where nothing could be made apart.

    A horrid smell assaulted Richard''s nose as he saw the cubic shaped weapon point toward his location, the rifle in his hands was raised toward it, and a bullet pierced through the air and crossed the distance between them in an instant. It hit the empty socket of the mysterious weapon, but his gun lacked the strength to severely damage it and only made a dent in it. His finger moved another time as he hit the trigger as he saw the man aim again toward him, due to his stress, he missed the man''s face by a small margin. He panicked as his mind was filled with the image of what his body would turn into if he got hit by it, and he tried to shoot again. Unfortunately he heard his rifle produce a sound that sank his heart to oblivion, in the middle of the stressful event his rifle jammed at the worst part. He prepared his heart as he saw the scene in slow motion; suddenly, a loud gunshot resounded through the room before the man with the mysterious rifle fell on the ground. A tennis ball sized hole could be seen on his face where his nose should have been, Blank-Faced Joe had acted in the last moment as he saw his man''s weapon jam and cleanly finished the man who owned the alien weapon.

    After losing their main means of survival, the assailants were swiftly dealt with as Blank-Faced Joe''s and his team rained bullets on them. They tried to hold their position as they hid behind desks and flipped tables. But the density of the material they hid behind didn''t last long under the constant shooting, and before long, the final floor was wiped clean from any human being beside Blank-Faced Joe and his team. He didn''t bother keeping one of them alive as he clearly knew who they were; as the general who dealt with selling information as a trade, he had recognized one of the hoodlums and knew they were just random thugs who had assembled together to loot the dying Filthy Jade Palace.

    The hotel had been turned into a shooting arena, and not even an inch of a wall didn''t have a mark from the battle that had just happened. Blank-Faced Joe couldn''t help but let a silent sigh escape from his lips. He quietly looked at the place he had built with his comrades. After a few seconds passed, he killed the last bit of reminiscence that welled in his heart before moving on. His steps took him toward the final location of their trip, and before long he found himself standing in front of a large grey colored door. It was made of a strengthened alloy and had resisted numerous attempts of bombing through its life. In fact, if one took down the walls surrounding the door, they would notice that the door was linked to a construct made of the same alloy.

 Chapter 143 A Masked Deception Part Four

    Blank-Faced Joe ordered his subordinate to hand him the remaining keys he lacked, and after looking at them for a long moment. His hand moved as he began assembling them in a mysterious way; this unknown fact was the last defensive wall to protect the treasury. The seven keys were in fact a hidden puzzle that needed a special assembling before they could open the door that led to the treasury.

    After a minute of concentration, he managed to assemble the seven keys into a star shaped object, and his subordinate looked at him with awe as they didn''t even know that the key needed to be used like this. A few of them couldn''t help but feel shame as they had thought of treason when they dealt with the keys, but now they didn''t feel any regret when they saw that they simply weren''t qualified. His fluid action clearly showed them that he had dabbled with the seven keys more than once, as if he was one of their creators.

    After assembling the keys, he got up and began walking toward the door of the treasury, and his hand began sliding along its rough surface. All over the door''s body was Filthy Jade Palace''s history, and he couldn''t help but fall again in reminiscence before sliding the star shaped key into what seemed like a random dent in the door. A blinding light was projected from the door, and after a few clicking sound the sound of the door sliding spread through the floor. The door''s weight made the entire floor shake during the entire ordeal, and it only stopped when it was fully opened.

    "Guard this place, and wait for me. Do not enter through this door if you want to keep your head in place¡­", he exclaimed before entering the door. After a few seconds, he disappeared in the dark of the large treasury, and the minute sounds his steps made couldn''t be heard anymore. After a few moments of silence, a few members of his team began voicing their dissatisfaction due to the weird event.

    "We can''t even follow there¡­ Don''t we deserve a little more trust for following him all those years!" one of them said as he kicked rubble away to empty his frustration.

    Richard couldn''t help but scold him, "Shut up! Do you need me to remind you of the first rule when following Joe?". He exclame while pointing toward the man who exclaimed.

    "No, he is right¡­", one of them mumbled while clenching his fists. "All this bullshit of a trade is done, Filthy Jade Palace is no more, and we should get as many gains as he-" before he could even finish speaking, a bullet hurled through the room. It swiftly pierced through the space between his eyebrow, destroyed his brain in an instant and left through the back of his head. This made a splash on the wall behind him with a mixture of the broken skull, grey matter, and blood.

    "We don''t question¡­ We follow!" Richard exclaimed as his grip tightened on his rifle. He was aware that greed could be birthed in a man''s heart when met with certain conditions, and that was just in sane civilized humans. The individuals in front of him were cold blooded murderers that had dealt with the Core''s shadiest business. He knew that whatever Joe was doing, he couldn''t be bothered by the pleads from greedy followers and had decided to deal with it in his own way.

    Thankfully after his intervention, no other discontentment was voiced as the rest of the team sat in what was left in the room. The open space filled with a desk that had been turned into a battlefield, turned to silence as the gang member waited for their leader.

    Blank-Faced Joe advanced through the darkness, and his memory led him through the path to the heart of the treasury. As the treasury of Filthy Jade Palace, it was quite big in size and contained several rooms for different things to secure. He was interested in the room that contained Pandora''s Box, and that needed him to tread in the maze like path of the treasury before reaching it. As the treasure that had created Filthy Jade Palace, it had been hidden in the treasury to avoid constant mutineer from the general and to avoid birthing greed easily in their hearts. Thus keeping them in check, and avoiding many inconvenient events in Filthy Jade Palace''s history. But he knew where to go, and his silent steps effortlessly took him inside the maze without the need of any other sense.

    After what seemed like he was mindlessly turning around for a few minutes, he finally came to a stop in one of the many random paths of the treasury. His hand traced the wall to his left as he sensed his surroundings; he had stopped when he felt what he had been looking for. A tiny bump in the steely wall was right under his palm, he pressed on it with all his might, and the protuberance sunk into the wall with difficulty. A click resounded through the path as he felt that the bump completely sank on the wall and after that, several other clicks happened as if something was being lifted.

    A door appeared out of nowhere in the darkness; he smirked before stepping inside as he felt that the long journey was close to its end. He didn''t know why he was doing all of this. In the end, he knew that Pandora''s Box had been empty all those years. It was his idea, and even with that, he felt a type of calling from it. As if after all those years, the lie had turned into reality and Pandora''s Box had gained a treasure out of nowhere. This type of thinking was completely contrary to his habits, but he couldn''t brush it off and felt the need to finally open it. He was ending Filthy Jade Palace''s history by his own hands.

 Chapter 144 A Masked Deception Part Five

    "I guess this is just how it should end.", he reassured himself as he stepped inside the hidden room in the treasury. The room was closer to a locker than a room, and its insides were only big enough to contain a large chest. Blank-Faced Joe took out an electric lamp from a pocket under his chest and put it on the sides of the walls.

    Finally, the chest appeared in his sight, and he couldn''t help but sigh as he saw that it was just an ordinary-looking chest. He cracked a laugh as he crouched down and took out the star shaped key while readying himself. "What a joke¡­", he couldn''t help but exclaim as he approached the star shaped key toward the chest. Its shape was similar to the chests that were used as furniture. It was made of wood, and the only difference was the way to open it. A star shaped indent could be seen on the lock, and there was no need to be a genius to know that it was the place where the key should be put to reveal its content.

    He steeled his resolve and inserted the key on the indent in the chest''s lock. A clicking sound notified him that the chest could now be opened, and as he began applying strength to lift it, he felt a cold wind travel through the nearby pathway that led to the hidden room. He swiftly turned around, and his eyes couldn''t help but open up from surprise. His heart thumped from the figure that appeared on his sight, and although he basked in darkness with only a soft electric light showing him a few lines. He immediately recognized the individual in front of him. To be more precise, he recognized the particular mask the individual was wearing.

    Although he couldn''t see its color, he knew its shape and could draw it while blinding his sight. That was the extent of preciseness his memory had when dealing with the mask''s wearer. "You''re not greeting me after all this time?" a gnarly voice escaped from under the mouth as goosebumps took over Blank-Faced Joe.

    Silence took over the hidden room as the two individuals stood in the narrow space; the distance between them was such that one only needed to slightly extend his hand to touch the other. Joe felt his heart thump through his chest as he couldn''t understand the presence of the other individual. Then it all clicked, the veil that hid the mystery of the generals'' deaths disappeared as he gazed at the masked figure that stood in front of him.

    "Not opening it?" the voice resounded again. Only this time, it was as if the voice didn''t come from under the mask but from the room itself. He nearly doubted that it was his own mind that had spoken as his senses couldn''t comprehend its origin, then the voice made its appearance again. "If you came all this way, why don''t you just go ahead and peek at my contents?", his head instantly turned away, nearly breaking due to the fast movement, and his sight locked the chest. The voice hadn''t been coming from the masked man, nor had it been a conception of his mind, but it had been produced from inside the chest.

    He silently looked at the chest as his eyes reflected the internal turmoil his emotion was causing. Fear, incomprehension, and panic were mixed in a grand emotive cocktail that shook Blank-Faced Joe from the inside. But his face was still calm as he didn''t spill anything, only his eyes reflected his inner thoughts as he couldn''t help but gaze at the chest before looking deeply at the masked figure. He felt his sight plunge deep into the eye holes of the mask, and after a few seconds, he took away his vision from the masked figure as he couldn''t help but feel like falling into two massive black holes.

    He swallowed with difficulty due to his dry throat before facing the chest again; he approached it again with slightly trembling hands before readying himself to lift it open. As he began lifting it, he felt as if his heart was going to jump through his chest. He tried to brace himself as he told himself that all of this was just a joke from the masked man, but the scene''s strangeness couldn''t be washed away with a few reassuring thoughts.

    As the chest revealed itself, he couldn''t help but see a reflection on its inside. "Liquid?", his mind thought as he exerted strength to lift the rest of the lid. A small pool of liquid was contained in the chest, and as he stood on top of it, he noticed his own reflection. Only that this reflection had something else added to it, his face was masked with the same type of mask the man behind him was wearing. His hand plunged into the liquid only to feel its coldness and density through his fingertips, he couldn''t help but shiver as he felt it was bordering extreme cold temperatures. "Is this some sick joke, and I''m actually plunging my hand in liquid nitrogen?" his sick mind thought as he felt coldness take over the limb that went underwater.

    He managed to push through as a cultivator, but after a few swipes from his hand, he couldn''t grab the mask. What was even worse was the fact that he had plunged his whole arm and still couldn''t touch the bottom part of the chest. He swiftly took out his arm from the chest and gazed back the masked man behind him.

    "This is an invitation. My superior has enjoyed our work together so far, why don''t you quit this shit hole of a planet and achieve greatness with us.", the first part of the masked man''s speech came from under his mask but the rest escaped from the chest and came from his own reflection through the liquid.

 Chapter 145 Bond Breaking Part One

    He couldn''t help but think in a split second that he was turning crazy; it couldn''t be surprising as he had dealt with shady individuals and did questionable things through the course of his life. The human mind was particularly good when it came to deceiving itself through rationalization, but the ongoing events were too far fetched to be a simple creation from the mind. Blank-Faced Joe looked at his reflection in the liquid and felt the call in his heart intensify even more. Whatever had led him through the strange journey was getting even stronger, and its intensity made his heart feel like it was going to explode inside of his chest.

    Then, the information about how he could gather the mask appeared in his mind. His body began moving on its own as the calling intensified, he hadn''t even put the mask on his face, but he was already feeling a sense of depersonalization. It was intense to the point where he couldn''t even control his limbs and found himself only capable of looking at his own actions; a mere spectator in the tragedy he was facing. He was crouching on top of the chest, and his face began approaching the surface of the liquid. His mind screamed, but his body didn''t stop, and before long, his nose was already deep into the freezing liquid.

    The next moment, his face entered completely through the liquid as he felt wisps of cold currents enter through the several apertures of his face. The coldness invaded his being as he felt his thoughts slow down; he lost track of time as he plunged deeply into the liquid. What followed his face was his neck, and slowly his whole body was shoved inside the chest. He felt himself float quietly in the darkness, and the chilling currents inside the liquid kept being fed to his body. He felt them travel through his meridian as they began invading deeper parts of his body.

    He knew that his body and soul were receiving a tempering of some sort, but the state of his mind made it impossible for him to do anything more than watch. The sense of depersonalization intensified to the point where it attained the state that gained him his nickname, Blank. No thoughts were produced as he just waited without feeling any sense of fear or panic. The cold current mixed with his energy, soul, and body before turning into an intrinsic property that could never be taken away. The liquid continued fusing with him, turning him into a stronger cultivator in any possible means. His muscles strengthened as their whole composition changed into being denser and heavier, his meridians were entirely carved, and before long, the liquid in the chest was traveling through his energy pathway.

    His body was changed into something else, and he found himself unable to do anything to change the process. He simply came into acceptance of the depersonalization and gladly took in the boost of strength he was receiving. He didn''t know if he was capable of paying the price of the transformation, nor did he try to think about it. From the moment he had entered the liquid, he had accepted their offer and was one of them. Long before meeting them, he had heard about the dozens of clans and organizations that had taken part in the invasion of Earth. Some came for war and assisted the leading race that assaulted his planet, while others only came with a business intent as they knew that war would benefit them much more in that position.

    The masked man was part of an organization that did so, business was their main goal, and he had come to meet them during the creation of Filthy Jade Palace. Due to the fact that he couldn''t do anything, his mind lost itself in his memory as he began thinking about his several interactions with the masked organization. They had wanted to implement themselves in the Core, as there was no clear leader in the underground business. He knew that it was common to take control of a weak turf; that was the same for them. The Core was only a weak turf that they could milk before going to another place.

    He had opposed them and asked for freedom to the people of the Core. He proposed the creation of Filthy Jade Palace, where generals would be appointed to balance the power inside of the organization. Every year they would pay a tribute as a respect to them and would help each other when in need of a particular product. Aided by the mysterious masked organization, Filthy Jade Palace grew to a point where Joe could never have hoped for. The connections they had gained and the resources they had at disposition made them the strongest force of the Core. But they didn''t reign over anything else, and only focused on building their business in the underground Core of New Casablanca.

    Now that he had thought about it, they must have found him quite cute when he had faced them and proposed a deal based on a lie. Pandora''s Box had been his own creation, a lie that had kept everyone in check for years and had made the general''s system work beyond what they had hoped for. But now he knew that they were aware of his lies and even with that information, they had followed his pleas. From that thought came a strange acceptance to what was happening to him, as the final piece of the puzzle was put on his mind. He knew that all along, all of this was simply a test. Back then, he had thought that he had managed to scheme and bluffed through their trials. Now he knew that they had chosen him all along, and had decided to play with him and test him with Filthy Jade Palace and New Casablanca as a playground.

    "This coldness¡­ This chill¡­ I''ll accept it", he thought as even more liquid began rushing toward his body. And soon enough, his mind was overwhelmed by the coldness, making him unable to even think.

 Chapter 146 Bond Breaking Part Two

    As that thought formed in his mind, the transformation of his body accelerated as he attained a rate of absorption higher than anything he did before. A change began appearing on his face; a mask''s outline began forming on his head. Its form was similar to the one the masked figure was wearing, but the shape was slightly different and gave off a unique vibe as it has Blank-Faced Joe''s essence in it. Time passed, and the more features began appearing on the mask''s edge, the more Joe absorbed the essence that was in the liquid, the more the mask turned real on his face.

    "Who would have thought that he would turn into one of us¡­" the masked man nearby couldn''t help but say it loudly as he stood close to the chest. He used unknown mean to monitor Blank-Faced Joe''s transition and couldn''t help but think about the past. He had met the man in front of him several times in the past, and the mask he harbored in his daily life had left a deep impression on him. His mask wasn''t a physical object, but was the emotionless face he showed everyone in the Core. A face that had got him his infamous nickname, and had turned him into a legendary gangster in the Core.

    "His mask formation is taking a lot of resources; it seems like the patriarch was truly right!" he blurted out as he saw the rate of absorption that came from inside Blank-Faced Joe''s body. "I guess he is just fated with our clan.", he thought about the amount of resources that a normal transition would consume, and he couldn''t help but be shocked as Blank-Faced Joe had already consumed far more of the liquid than that.

    The liquid in the chest was a treasure that was prepared in their sect, one that was used in many traditions and that took years to form. It contained the very essence of the god they prayed, and during their members'' first baptism, it would completely change their body''s internal structure and energy pathway. Giving them a base talent higher than what they could achieve alone; not only does it enhance the user''s body, it also shaped their destiny and linked it with their sect''s future.

    It was akin to turning into a family member. Time advanced, and Joe''s mask began turning corporeal under the massive absorption, there has been enough liquid to fill a massive tank, but now it had been reduced to a small amount that was diminishing at a fast rate. Thankfully his mask was nearly finished, and it only lacked a single percent to attain full completion; his mask was blank and didn''t contain any pattern. Contrary to the masked figure who had deep lines, and curves, that traveled all along it. Joe''s mask was similar to his nickname, and it portrayed the mask he had been wearing all those years. No emotions were released from it, and as he hovered in the middle of the liquid, he sent a weird transcendental vibe to whoever could see him.

    The liquid was soon reduced to a state where it would only fill a small puddle, and the absorption rate coming from Blank-Faced Joe''s body accelerated as he absorbed everything in a last push. His mask formed completely as a tremendous aura formed on his body; the masked figure nearby couldn''t help but shiver slightly when feeling the exuding aura. Fear appeared under his mask as he couldn''t help but dread the mask of Joe''s face; it had been formed with many more resources than his own. Although his mask had already evolved several times during his cultivation journey, Joe''s mask was purer and made him sense a feeling of awe. As if he was standing in front of an elder of the sect, someone he had rarely met during a few clan rituals.

    Suddenly, a hand appeared out of the chest then an arm crawled as it lifted the rest of a hidden body. The air crackled as a tremendous pressure made its appearance in the tiny hidden room. The masked figure nearby felt the need to flee, but his pride as a strong cultivator made him stand his ground as he was still Joe''s senior. What would the others think of him if it was revealed that he was feeling fear toward someone that just passed the first baptism ritual? Blank-Faced Joe slowly crawled out of the chest, and soon enough, his entire body was out of the chest. Illuminated by the small electric light, his mask appeared in the small room and reflected the green light that came from it.

    The mask was truly featureless, and only contained two holes for the eyes, and its shape only followed Joe''s facial structure. His eyes glowed under his mask, and were the same color of his mask. A pale white that caused a shuddered that traveled along the masked figure''s body. He couldn''t help but curse as he exclaimed in a cold voice while releasing his own pressure.

    "Close your pores, as your breakthrough has made you vastly stronger than you were before. You might not be used to it, breath calmly, and try to control your strength."

    Joe calmly gazed at the man before him and was surprised to see specks of fear in the man''s eyes. He had already been good at discerning people''s emotions, but he felt as if this particular talent of his was boosted to a degree unattainable by mankind. He tried to follow the man''s advice as he closed his pores, the crackling in the air immediately stopped, and the chilling wind current that had been rambling in the small room followed suit.

    He clenched his fist and felt his blood course through his veins with the might of hundreds of horses. Although he had been a cultivator before and had already tasted a little bit of power but compared to his current strength, it was nothing and made him think that he was only a little bit stronger than an average mortal.

 Chapter 147 Bond Breaking Part Three

    His senses traveled along his body as he enjoyed the changes his body went through. His breathing was deep and composed, his thoughts were particularly clear, and he felt as if a veil was taken out of his brain. Even in the dark, his eyes saw as clear as in daylight, and his hearing was accentuated to the point he could hear his subordinate talk from his current position.

    After a few seconds of enjoying the changes he had gone through, he looked at the masked figure and expressed his need for leaving the room as he wanted to breath fresh air. They left the room with silent steps and walked back through the maze like treasury before appearing near the gigantic door. His subordinate had been talking between them. As time passed, they formed small group and tried to pass the time with the means they had at hand. Joe and the masked figure reappeared near the treasury entrance; several members of Joe''s force noticed them and grabbed their rifle by reflex. The pressure they felt when the masked figures appeared near them made want to flee, but in their mind, their boss was still in the treasury and shouldn''t take long to come.

    Richard saw the two men appear out of nowhere, he grabbed his rifle in a split second and aimed at them before howling in an aggressive tone. "This is Filthy Jade Palace! Who are you guys?!" his heart beat through his chest as he felt like he couldn''t look at the two individuals in the eyes. His vision would plunge deeply in their mask, and he felt like it would only take a single moment before he lost himself in their abyss like gaze. Then as he avoided their eyes, he paid attention to what they were wearing and noticed that one of them was wearing Joe''s clothes. His rifle trembled slightly as the weapon''s barrel was turned toward the ground, he mumbled while feeling the strangeness of the matter.

    "Joe? Is that you?" he exclaimed while avoiding meeting the eye of the man following Joe. He clearly remembered that their leader had entered the treasury alone, and that fact made him panic as he couldn''t comprehend from where came the masked figure following Joe. And why was his boss wearing a mask. Those kinds of questions constantly appeared in his mind as he waited for his friend''s answer.

    Blank-Faced Joe quietly gazed at his friends; his boosted sense of analysis showed him Richard''s emotions in the open. He couldn''t help but let a silent sigh as his sight traveled from one subordinate to the other. Their emotions were shown in such an obvious way that he doubted that they were faking it, but his heart told him that he should trust his senses and that everything was real. As his sight moved from one individual to the other, he couldn''t help but pause on one individual. That was the one who had voiced his discontentment when he had entered the treasury alone, and a cocktail of emotions were revealed to him without any difficulty. Greed mixed with anger and jealousy, he couldn''t help but have his heart skip a beat when he looked at the man who used to work under him. Joe''s heart didn''t skip a beat due to fear or anger, but it was due to blood lust that had taken form in his mind as soon as he noticed the mass of negative emotion in his subordinate.

    He ignored the call from his body and continued gazing at his subordinate with an emotionless gaze as he learned how to use his newfound power. Thankfully for him, there was only a single one of them who showed negative emotion that was aimed personally at him. The others weren''t angry nor greedy toward his behavior; what was apparent to him was the waves of incomprehension that showed on their face. They couldn''t put their minds at rest and were clearly oblivious to what was happening. He sighed silently again before he opened his lips as he tried to express himself in a warm tone to express his intention of breaking the group.

    "Filthy Jade Palace is finished!", contrary to his intention, the voice that left his throat was morphed by the mask. And mixed with the chaotic energy his body contained, his voice turned into a cold and deadly voice that made his subordinate clench their weapon tighter. A few of them couldn''t help but take a step back as their legs shook from panic. If it wasn''t for the fact that he was their boss, they would have trusted their bodies and would have made a run for their life.

    "Our journey has been great, and we have achieved many grand deeds!" another wave of coldness spread through the room as his speech expressed a wholly different intent than what he wanted. "Thanks.", he ended as he tried expressing his feeling toward his subordinate with clarity. But again, what left his mask was a twisted tone that made his subordinate panic even more. The only one who didn''t retreat toward the stairway was Richard, who stood shocked in place, although the voice left him trembling from fear. A fear that was intrinsic to his mortal nature, he couldn''t help but feel more perturbed by his friend''s speech.

    "Why is thanking us? Is he¡­ leaving?" he couldn''t help but think as he knew that he was probably right. The moment that thought took over his mind, he couldn''t help but shiver as he gazed at his now old boss.

    As soon as he finished speaking, Blank-Faced Joe and the masked man approached the sides of the room. They walked toward a broken window, and Joe looked one last time toward his subordinate before jumping through the window. The masked man following him didn''t look at the mortal under Joe at all and only stood in place during the whole course of action. It was as if they didn''t exist at all.

 Chapter 148 Bond Breaking Part Four

    The moment the pair of masked figures left through the window, the rest of the crew regained their senses as their inner panic disappeared. They looked at each other with a pair of eyes filled with confusion and bewilderment. They still didn''t understand whatever had just happened. They knew that their boss had disassembled their crew, but they didn''t receive any explanation, nor did they get an answer about who was the masked figure following Joe.

    They stood in place for a minute or two. The hotel that had faced a battlefield turned into a gloomy environment. Finally, they began moving as they took the stairway and begun descending through the several floors before leaving. After what happened, they felt lost and didn''t think about the treasury as their minds were still shaken by the unexpected events. The one who showed dissatisfaction couldn''t help but empty his frustration, and as he descended, he insulted his old boss and spouted infamy and curses one after the other. The others were too tired and wasted by the feeling of betrayal after the departure from their boss. Even Richard only looked at the man twice before shaking his head and ignored him for the rest of the trip.

    "How dare he treat us like disposable trash? That fucking bastard only knows how to use people, and we''ve been used like the rest of Filthy Jade Palace!" he kicked rubbles as he advanced. His eyes glowed from anger, and the temperature of his body spiked as his speech accelerated. He was fuming, and all of the anger and jealousy he had towards their boss was released in one go. "Why is there no one speaking? I am the only one who feels like we just go fucked?".

    "We fought with him for years, and the only thing we get is a thanks?"

    "Fuck him, and F-", his speech stopped suddenly. Confusion appeared on the face of two men that walked in front of him; he had been flapping his lips ever since Joe had left. They had been hoping that he would shut his mouth, and even thought about putting a bullet through his skull. However, they managed to stop themselves as too much blood had been spilled that night. But now that he had stopped speaking, they couldn''t help but find it odd and turned around to check why he suddenly stopped in his angry bravado.

    Their hearts sank in their chest the moment they turned around and saw the scene behind them. There was no one, no trace of their comrades who had been incessantly ranting. The only thing that could be seen was a wall painted red, droplets of a red substance fell on the floor in a rhythmic tone and awakened them from their stupor. Both of them could have sworn that they hadn''t fought in this compartment of the building, especially when the walls of the corridor they walked through were white. Completely different from the red walls close to where the ranting man was.

    Both of them looked at each other before the pair decided that they should just ignore whatever happened. They were alive, and their ears were finally safe from the constant rant; that was what mattered, and that was enough for them. Joe''s past subordinates left the hotel that was used as Filthy Jade Palace''s general quarters. They stood in the empty streets; most of them still didn''t shave off the aftertaste of what had just happened. After what seemed like a few minutes of bitter silence, Richard finally stepped in and exclaimed loudly.

    "It''s useless to stand here while reminiscing about the past and doubting about the future! What can''t be changed never will. Follow me, brothers, let''s go drink ourselves to death tonight!", as he finished his speech, he turned around and started walking in a straight line, without waiting for anyone. A few of them followed him, and Joe''s ancient crew was separated even more as everyone went their own way.

    That was the last time most of the crew would meet each other inside of the Core. Whether they lived through the future calamity or died, it all depended on their destiny and will to survive. But that was a story for an other time. One that would reveal to be much closer than what the inhabitants of the city thought. The citizens of the main district still lived in their robotic routine; those who worked kept working every day while those who owned the businesses continued their blissful life of luxury. That was the sad fate of the city, one where money was the main goal of everyone, yet still couldn''t bring happiness in one''s life. That fact was well known throughout the higher classes and especially the noble families. Although their children grew in a safe haven where every single desire could be met, they still put a major emphasis on developing their seedlings, and that was even more a reality with the emergence of the cultivation era.

    Sadly, cultivation was a luxury that wasn''t easily accessed by the poor, and even if they came upon a cultivation technique, it would only augment their life expectancy by a sliver. It would definitely never grant them super strength or make them break through the shackle of mortality. This was a sad reality of the city, one that still didn''t adapt to the growing cultivation era. Thankfully, a few opportunities existed, Battle League being one of them, and that made it possible for the majority to get a taste of acquiring prowess akin to a cultivator.

    Wind was currently advancing towards the battle center of New Casablanca. He hummed a happy tune as he walked in the empty roads of the central district, and his mood made him feel as if nothing could ruin his day. He had just finished dating the cute receptionist of the Golden Factory and had decided that today was a good day for his debut in Battle League.

 Chapter 149 Bond Breaking Part Five

    After a few minutes of walking through the nearly empty streets of New Casablanca, he finally spotted the gigantic building that was known as a Battle Center. He felt an excited shudder run through his body, and he accelerated his pace as he saw the front door in his field of view.

    "He told me I should ask for Mahlya!", he thought as he was a few feet from the door. "Or was it Sahlya?", he couldn''t help but shake his head as his memory began failing him. "No need to press the matter! It should be easy.", he thought as the automatic door opened in front of him.

    As soon as the door opened, he heard a buzzing cacophony escape from the building. "The player base is really active!", he couldn''t help but blurt as it was currently near midnight. He stepped inside of the large hall and saw that it was still quite active. He noticed several groups of individuals standing or sitting near tables, in the hand of some were beverages while others smoked a cigarette while passionately speaking with their friends. Wind felt something in his heart ache a little bit as he saw the numerous friendships that were displayed in front of him; he couldn''t help but open his chest widely as he treaded with confident steps.

    He crossed the distance between him and the receptionist that stood on the side in a few moments. An amiable look appeared on his face as he instinctively activated his soul power. "Hello there!", he exclaimed with a charming tone while gazing at the woman in front of him.

    "Uhm, Hello. What can I do for you?", exclaimed a clearly tired receptionist. Her eyes expressed her inner sleepiness, but as Wind approached, her tiredness disappeared as she gazed at the youth in front of him.

    "A friend of mine is one of your regulars. You see, he has been telling me many goods about your games, and today I finally decided that I should try it for myself.", as he began speaking, he fell in his habit of talking too much and began endlessly flapping his lips.

    A clearly annoyed look crossed the receptionist''s face. Still, as the youth in front of her didn''t do anything against the rule, she listened patiently at his constant blabbing without voicing any discontentment. After a minute or so of Wind trying to hit on the receptionist had passed, he coughed as he saw that the woman in front of him was clearly not interested and decided that he should stop.

    "Well, you see he told me that if I wanted to play the game. I should just come here and ask for Rahlya.", as he finished, he looked at the receptionist with sparkling eyes.

    "Rahlya?", the receptionist mumble under her breath as she fumbled through her memory in search of the individual named Rahlya. "Oh! You mean Tahlya?", she exclaimed in a loud voice.

    "Ah yeah, that''s her name!", he responded in a snappy tone while slapping his forehead.

    "She is currently taking care of one of our top rankers, but I can see if there is any battle maiden I can accommodate for you!", she then looked at the screens in front of her. After a minute of clicking sounds, she finally raised her head and looked pitifully at Wind for a split second. Her pity disappeared in an instant as she remembered that the youth bothered her in the middle of her night shift.

    "There is actually one Battle Maiden that is ready to help you through your first steps. Do you want me to make contact with her for you?", she asked with a charming tone.

    A satisfied smile appeared on Wind''s face as he accepted her offer with a slap on the reception table in front of him. The receptionist rolled her eyes as she made an appointment with the available Battle Maiden. A few minutes passed as she asked Wind if he wanted a beverage during his wait, which our young official refused as he didn''t want to bother her anymore. During the wait, he noticed a charming battle maiden make her way through the large reception hall and couldn''t help but ask if that lady would be helping him. Sadly, the receptionist explained that Battle Maidens weren''t available for every player, but every new attendant would be helped with a battle maiden. The charming brunette he had seen in the reception hall was already fulfilling her duty and wasn''t available for him.

    He didn''t take it at heart and was even more interested in the other battle maiden. If that brunette was already quite the babe, then the other should definitely follow the same norm. He thought as he tried killing time while listening to the conversations of the player base. He couldn''t make head or tail about their talks but had managed to hear several accomplishments of a few notable players. One of them being the rising dark horse that had appeared out of nowhere in the last month, Stroke. He couldn''t help but think about Fell and guessed that he should be quite known through the battle center due to his status as a player. Then in the middle of his thoughts, he heard a deep sound that slightly shook the earth in repetition, he assessed that the sound was akin to someone walking and turned his head in interest.

    There he saw her, with shoulder broader than anything he had ever seen. Forearms the size of a man''s thighs, and a thick neck that made him doubt if anything could break it. Truly a man of steel, but in this case, that man of steel was wearing the battle maiden''s outfit and was making her way toward him. His sight locked on her face, and he couldn''t help but shudder as he saw her look at him. Everyone made way through the receptionist hall, and a large path leading to Wind opened in front of her.

 Chapter 150 Aftermath Part One

    Silence permeated the large hall, and Wind''s heart thumped every time the battle maiden of steel stepped toward him. He looked at the receptionist with eyes that seemed like they were gonna shed tears of blood, but the tired receptionist only avoided him while portraying a face filled with purity ¡ª a true virgin Mary. Wind swallowed his saliva with difficulty as he soon found himself shadowed by the towering figure in front of him. She looked at the cowering man in front of her, and pointed at him while turning her sight toward the receptionist who simply nodded. Her forearm advanced toward Wind and grabbed him by the collar, Wind''s heart skipped a beat as he closed his eyes in fear. Nothing happened, and he felt his body rise up and down. When he opened his eyelids again, he saw himself advance toward an elevator with his body on top of the battle maiden''s shoulder.

    "Uh, Hello?", he exclaimed with a timid voice. "You see, I''m really pure, and I''m not super comfortable with the ladies. You see, I''m quite the anxious one, and It would be great if you let me walk on my own."

    He only heard a cold grunt in return, and the next moment he felt the ground under his feet and expelled a silent sight through his sore throat. He looked in front of him and saw the towering back of the battle maiden enter through the elevator. "She doesn''t seem that mean¡­", he thought as he followed suit and also entered in the elevator. Normally it should have been enough to house a crew of individuals with zero problems. But with the battle maiden of steel, he couldn''t help but feel as tight as if he was inside of a can of sardines. Her enormous waist blocked him against the wall, and it was only after a few seconds of ascending that he felt himself freed from the steely embrace.

    She began advancing through the narrow corridor without taking a second look at the frail man who followed her. Wind couldn''t help but feel ashamed when he saw her musculature; he had been nonstop boasting about his newfound strength, and he began comparing himself with the battle maiden of steel. His head dropped low as he followed his battle maiden with low confidence, and after a few second, the battle maiden stopped in front of the door. Her hand flashed in front of the door as she unlocked it, and made way for Wind to enter. He didn''t make her wait and speedily entered through the door with graved on it.

    The battle maiden of steel pointed towards the steel table that was in the middle of the room. Wind couldn''t make head or tail about what she meant but followed suit and laid on the table. He felt the machine under lit up, and after a few seconds passed, nothing happened in his sight. Doubt appeared on his face as he continued gazing at the ceiling, then a large hand appeared on his field of view and shut down his sight. Battle League system instantly booted and filled his vision, during the instant his brain was halfway inside of the game he heard a loud voice pierce through his ears.

    "Beat them all!", he didn''t know where it came from, but he guessed that it must have been from his battle maiden. He couldn''t help but feel slightly happy as he considered that she was cheering for him. He finished fully logging in the game, and a large firmament appeared, filling the entirety of his surroundings.

    He speedily passed through his avatar''s creation as he decided that he should just keep his real life''s facial features. And the next moment he found himself in a vast field, dozens of lines of weapon appeared in his sight. With it came a system notification that explained the course of the tutorial. Without further thoughts, he grabbed one of the weapons that floated in the air and effectuated a few swipes to get used to it. He had chosen a spear, one that wasn''t solid but was made of supple wooden material. He couldn''t help but exclaim in surprise as he made a few movements and noticed the strength in his body. Although his physical body was quite strong in itself, and could even be said to have attained the peak of mortality. It was still a far range in comparison with the physique of a body cultivator, and after a few seconds of getting accustomed to it, he couldn''t help but feel impressed by the game''s technology.

    A timer appeared in his vision.

    He knew that his first opponent would appear in the next few moments; his eyes closed as he envisioned himself as the strongest superuser, and when he reopened them, a sharp glint appeared in them.

    A man appeared in front of him. He assumed a battle stance as he waited for Wind to initiate the fight. On top of his field of view, he saw an inscription that said that it was the first wave. Without making his first opponent wait even further, Wind transformed into a piercing figure that crossed space between them. He knew that his way of handling the spear was wrong, but the inner confidence he had when he visualized himself as a spear user made him ignore everything. He went for the killing blow in the first strike, and his spear pierced through his opponent chest''s in a split second.

    The martial artist in front of him looked at him with a pained gaze before sliding along his spear toward the ground. Thud! The sound of his body hitting the ground awakened Wind from his stupor. He sighed as he doubted himself when killing the martial artist; as the game was way too real, his mind froze when he saw the expression of the martial artist on death''s door. Thankfully, he managed to shut down those feelings in an instant as he heard two distinctive footsteps rush toward him.

 Chapter 151 Aftermath Part Two

    After cleaning up the second wave of martial artists at an even faster pace, Wind entered an even stronger mental state, one where he began adapting with the spear in his hand at an astonishing rate. After having spent weeks upon weeks of training, today, he could finally let loose. He blew some steam and felt his mind refreshed with each spear swipe he executed, and as the number of martial artists grew in number, he let himself plunge deeply in their ranks.

    He envisioned himself as a heroic spear user, and his special faculty as a soul cultivator made him synchronize with that persona with no difficulty. That was what made Wind a frightening individual on his own; his capacity to lie and transform his core personality made him capable of adapting in any situation. Although his moves were lacking in technique, what he lacked in practice, he compensated it with his astounding momentum. And soon enough, he lost himself in the joy of the game.

    Fell opened his eyes slightly as he began resurfacing from the state caused by the mass information transfer; his memory was groggy, and it could take him a few seconds to rearrange it. As he got up from his sitting position on the ground, he noticed that he was currently in his mountain peak and understood that he had quit the grounds of the trial by fire. Then as his mind was focused on his fight with the skeleton boss, strange information began popping in his mind in the form of inscriptions. He couldn''t make head or tail about them, but whenever he thought about the skeleton boss''s action of slashing through space, a massive wall of information would appear on his head. With that tremendous amount of text came an immense head ache that made him feel like his brain was turning into mud.

    "What the heck!", he exclaimed whit both hands placed on his temples. He tried massaging them for a few seconds to relieve himself, but as long as the image of the skeleton boss''s move appeared in his mind, it would be followed by a head ache that would shake his soul. As the action repeated itself twice, he deducted that whenever he would think about the skeleton boss the massive wall of information would pop in his mind. With that information in mind, he sat on the floor and tried to clear his thoughts, and after a few seconds of effort, he managed to regain a decent mental clarity.

    "This reward¡­", he mumbled. "I''m not yet qualified to accept it!", he finished before exhaling a silent sight. Nonetheless, he managed to regain some positivity as the gains from the trial by fire weren''t limited at the mysterious technique at all. His hand flashed, and his sword appeared in front of him, slightly grasped inside of his palm. As he looked at him, he couldn''t help but feel that his link with swords had been strengthened to a whole different degree than it was before. He felt the need to disconnect from the game and take out Soldier''s Fortune from its spatial pocket, but he managed to stop himself as he still didn''t finish what he planned.

    Although after finishing the trial, he had been mentally tired to a point he had never attained before. The mass information transfer had put him in a deep sleep that made him regain his stamina and made him simply unable to log out of the game. Furthermore, as his mind grew clearer and clear by the minute, he felt that today was the day where he would finish his placement fights. With that thought affirmed in his mind, he began warming up in the middle of the vast training ground. The first thing he noticed after drawing his sword a few times in front of him was that his foundational skills had solidified even more than before. In his brain, moving his sword and executing basic actions with it had turned into an intrinsic feature in his biology. In a sense, his sword skills had turned into a basic skill his brain could execute with no difficulty. It became a natural expertise he had hardcoded into his core. He only needed to think about his actions, and his muscular memory would kick in and swiftly execute them.

    "Hahahaha- Incredible!", he exclaimed with a juvenile smile on his face. It was an expression of pure, innocent feelings that he had advanced a few more steps in his sword path. Boosted by the exhilaration of his newfound joy, his movements spiked as he accelerated and began dashing everywhere around him. His figure blinked through the fighting platform with a speed that made it difficult for the naked eye to follow, and if anyone were here to see him in his practice, they would have thought that he was piercing through space itself during his movement.

    Soon enough, he accelerated to the point where he attained his top speed. A vast trail of dust was left behind his steps, and sonic booms echoed through the valley one after the other. All along followed with a pearly laugher that would have left anyone dumbfounded. In the middle of his course, for the first time in his life, he felt something hinder his movement. Instinctively he knew that his speed had attained a degree where his body''s contact with air created too much strength, causing him to be unable to give his all. He came to a stop in a split second. A tile broke under his feet as he had stopped in a rough manner. The tile began regenerating at a speed visible to the naked eye while Fell pondered on a way to solve the air friction problem. He lifted his hand up and laid it on his chin. The glint in his eyes glowed as thousands of thoughts passed through his mind in minutes.

    "What if I just pass through space itself?", he mumbled as he thought about the skeleton boss''s spatial slash.

 Chapter 152 Aftermath Part Three

    A pained grunt escaped his lips as the towering wall of information nearly made his brain explode. "Too difficult¡­", he grunted while catching his head. It was only after a few breaths that he managed to make the wall of information disappear. He sighed again as he felt that this sensation was the worst feeling possible. Having a grand technique at disposition, but not even being able to read it, it made him feel depressed in an instant. With his head dropped low, he saw the specks of dust travel through the air as they went toward the broken tiles. Those specks were infinitely small, but as they added little by little, the tiles grew bigger in second as it began filling the empty void in the fighting arena.

    Fell trembled successively as he felt like lightning struck through his mind. He stood on the same spot with leg seemingly rooted to the ground under him, his sight fully locked on the regenerating tile. "If I can''t comprehend everything¡­ Then I should be capable of understanding a microscopic amount of that technique!", he thought as he slapped his tight as a string of laughter escaped his throat. "I''m confident in my own comprehension skills; the problem isn''t about understanding the technique lied in its deconstruction.", as he knew he found a way to achieve his means, he fell in deep thoughts.

    After a few minutes of constant brain work, it came to him with striking simplicity. If the wall of information appeared whenever he would think about the skeleton boss''s technique, then shouldn''t he try to visualize a specific part of the skeleton movements. With that idea in his head came dozens of head aches as he tried to apply it. The mountain monitored his actions as he saw him go through waves of head aches one after the other. It had seen scenes similar to this one before. However, as the reward from the trial by fire differed, depending on the boss the participant fought, learning the technique never happened through the same process; some simply stopped trying and waited till their cultivation grew to a point where they could face the gigantic wall of information. But the youth in front of the spirit was different, and although the head aches left him to shiver to the point where he couldn''t even stand on his feet, he would continue after a few seconds of rest.

    "Oh-Oh-Oh! What an insane behavior. I can''t put my mind if he a masochistic enjoying the head aches, or a fearless tiger who isn''t afraid of a mind and body breakdown.", the AI that monitored the tutorial''s second phase thought as it hesitated on stopping the youth. If he broke his mind in his attempt at eating a pie that was too big for his size, then it would become a huge loss to the corporation behind Battle League. As it had been created with the sole purpose of taking care of the player, it hesitated on intervening but, in the end, decided to leave him fumble through his own path.

    The interest the mountain AI had over Fell grew over the day, and now it had grown to a point where it didn''t want to interact too much with him. In fears that she might stop him from doing something beneficial, that was a risky train of thought as fearless youth tended to ignore potential backlashes in the middle of their crazed training. But in the end, she couldn''t overly interact with his path as it could stop his astounding progress. With that conclusion as a maxim, it watched from the sides as Fell went through dozens of waves of headache.

    After what seemed like thirty minutes of tests and trials, progress became apparent as the rate and lengths of his head aches diminished. The reason was simple, Fell''s visualization of the skeleton boss was sharper and sharper. His deconstruction of the spatial slashes grew more and more precise under his constant practice, and his endurance toward the wall of information grew after seeing him more than hundreds of times in dozens of minutes.

    He laid on the ground with a puddle of sweat under him that had been dripping from his body during the whole session. A smile formed on his face with difficulty as he felt that the wall of information had been reduced to a degree where he could soon gaze at it without feeling the massive head ache. His body shook constantly, and he got up again with difficulty as he breathed in and out to clear the image from his mind. With the constant trials, he had come to the conclusion that the only thing he could try to visualize where the slight fluctuation that came with the skeleton boss''s slash. All this time, he had been doing his utmost in visualizing it alone, but that had shown to be a much more difficult task than he thought. If even a single frame from the rest of the spatial slash appeared in his mind, the wall of information would appear and would assault his mind in a split second.

    He needed both a chilling mental clarity, and a tremendous focus as a slight mistake would make the wall of information grow to a point where he couldn''t benefit from the experience. "Remember the fluctuation in space¡­ How your surroundings shivered like a soft tissue before expending in an instant¡­", his eyes were closed, and the only thing that appeared in his vision was the invisible vortex that would appear to transfer the skeleton boss''s slashes through spaces. Thankfully during the fight, he had grown accustomed to them as he needed to evade them with utmost precision, and that made his current actions progress at a faster rate than if it was for another part of the technique.

    After a few minutes without headaches passed, his efforts were finally rewarded as a wall of information appeared in his mind. Its contents were related to the fluctuations that appeared when movements were made through space.

 Chapter 153 Aftermath Part Four

    No head ache appeared when he gazed at the wall of inscription, it was, on the contrary, a soothing feeling as if he was currently floating in the middle of an empty void. He lost track of time as he stood with legs deeply rooted in the fighting platform tiles. His eyes were closed, and he seemed utterly oblivious to his surroundings. The wind blew on him, his clothes moved with the air current, but his brain received zero information about it, and thus he didn''t feel it.

    His mind was currently floating in an empty void. In front of him was a wall of inscription; lines after lines that explained the concept about spatial fluctuations. Although he couldn''t understand the language it was written in, he just came to understand the inscription''s contents. It wasn''t because he was a genius of some sort, but it was because phenomenons would appear around him when his eyes passed through the lines of inscription.

    Sometimes an invisible vortex would appear around him when reading another part of the wall. A bubble would pop and produce a mass of energy that would wash away the void. Each line represented different concepts, concepts that were all linked to space. Although it couldn''t be said that Fell was assimilating the laws of space, this experience was similar to making his first contact with them. Laws that stood on the very top of the rules that governed the universe. And one that inseparably linked with the energy system, as energy appeared when space expended, the laws of space was one of the highest achievements an energy cultivator could ascend to.

    The flow of time was warped as the whole scene was happening in his mind. After what felt like an eternity of floating in the vast void, he began feeling a sensation similar to suffocation. Though the origin of the suffocation didn''t come from his body, but rather from his soul. He tried to push through the odd feeling, but the more he went against it, the more it intensified. His eyes opened abruptly as he was thrown back from the empty void, his diaphragm contracted as his lung expanded to gather as much air in them.

    After a few gasping breaths, he managed to wash away the odd feeling of asphyxiation without trouble. Normally as a cultivator of his level, he could go on without breathing for an absurd period of time, but this asphyxiation of the soul left his mind reeling as it truly was an odd sensation.

    During those moments of fighting against it, as he tried to push through it and stay in the empty void, he felt like his internal fire was going to extinguish, and his soul was going to disappear in the void. Fear was still apparent in his eyes for a few minutes after the event as he mumbled continuously.

    "Death is scary¡­ death is scary¡­ death is scary¡­", he repeated as it seemed like the experience left a deep mark on his psyche. He had faced death many times during his life, but this kind of death of the soul. Never in his life had he faced it, the imminent fear of simply not existing anymore.

    It left him feeling like he was going to disappear in an endless warp of space, never to be seen again. Forever forgotten by all the living being.

    Thankfully his fear died down as time passed, and he finally managed to remember what he saw in the vast void in his mind. The scriptures were far too obscure for him to remember, but as his memory worked, he managed to remember one inscription. It was the one that caused fluctuations through space and was similarly the one he remembered during his fight against the black skeleton.

    Fell focused his entire mind on that scripture. He tried to envision it to the best without making his memory of the fight resurface as not to provoke the appearance of the wall of inscriptions. The work was entirely about mindfulness and the control of his spirit and would allow him to get to an absolute focused state.

    He sat on the floor with one hand extended in front of him. His legs were crossed together and his back was straight, giving the impression that it was as tall as the mountain the fighting platform was installed on. He focused his will on regulating his breathing while washing down the unnecessary thoughts that surfaced in his mind.

    Time slowly ticked and with his relentless efforts, he managed to enter a state of pure mindful zen. The world could burn in front of him, and he wouldn''t even bat an eyelid. A tsunami wave could roll on his body yet he wouldn''t move an inch.

    With eyes closed, he began visualizing the inscriptions that caused the fluctuation in space, and as he willed it, the outline of the scripture began appearing in his mind. Little by little, the golden characters were painted out of nowhere with the strength of his will. The carving took him a few minutes to complete; it was rough and crooked and gave Fell the impression that it could disappear at any moment.

    But the moment the inscription drawing was finished in his mind, a change happened around him. Minute fluctuations began showing around Fell, and the wind''s current was bent around him. Even the light from the undying virtual sun was refracted slightly as it warped around the spatial fluctuation.

    Suddenly, his eyes opened, and the extended hand in front of him snapped in an abrupt manner. It traveled at lightning speed and swiftly made contact with the floor tile in front of him with a strength that could cause deal absurd damage and destroy the whole platform in a fraction of a second.

    Yet the floor tile stood solid as it didn''t even move from Fell''s hit. A few seconds passed, and a sound similar to a rock snapping in half resounded through the entire fighting platform.

 Chapter 154 Final Push Part One

    A few meters in front of Fell, a small cloud of dust rose as a fighting tile turned into a pile of dust and rubble.

    Fell''s heart jumped through his chest as he hadn''t expected such an obvious result. He might have given his all in his past action, and even prepared his mental state in case of failure as that was what he expected. But the result in the front of him showed him that he was truly capable of moving his attack''s damage through space.

    After his joy died down, he looked at the impact of his move and after pondering for a few seconds on the results, he assessed in a critical tone, "This is still far from usable in an actual fight¡­", his hand moved to his chin as he thought about the extended preparation he needed to nail the technique. "If I tried it in an actual battle, any movement from my opponent could make the inscription drawing fail in an instant!".

    "Wait!", his eyes glowed as he felt like a bright idea popped in his mind. "Although it is unusable in an actual fight. If I take my chances and use it to engage against an opponent in a surprise attack, it could definitely work. No, it will definitely work!".

    Although the mysterious spatial technique was far from being usable at his level, he had achieved the impossible feat of adding other assets to his skills. It had been derived from a surprise attack that needed many minutes of preparation, but under special circumstances, it would still come in handy. His effort at unearthing the special technique''s potential through deconstruction had shown faster result than what he had expected, that enough was a matter sufficient for him to be joyful. But the fact that he still had much more to learn using the mysterious spatial technique, he couldn''t help but feel impressed at the vastness of the universal law''s application.

    Without further attempt, he got up from his cross legged position and advanced towards the center of the fighting platform. His heart thumped with each step as he walked through the fighting platform. The moment he took the decision of resuming his placement fights, his heart thumped as he unconsciously pressured himself.

    Yet an incredible phenomenon happened, with every step he took toward the transportation area, his heart rate would reduce itself as Fell converted his stress and pressure into battle intent. His memory flashed with his fights in the endless battlefield, and he found himself empowered and bolstered by his success inside it.

    "Senior Mountain, I''m ready!", he exclaimed as his voice boomed through the mountain peak. He didn''t even stop in the center of the fighting platform but had expressed his intent to debut his match the moment he stepped in. His body disappeared as it turned into a multitude of colorful light dots, yet for him, it simply seemed as if he was still walking through his own mountain''s fighting platform.

    His surroundings showed him that his location wasn''t the same anymore. All around the fighting platform were dozens of pines, and other different trees that had a common similarity. Their aura was sharp, and if he didn''t look directly at them, he would have sworn that they were humongous swords planted on the ground.

    In the middle of the multitude of trees, he noticed his opponent standing with his back against a tree. If he hadn''t gazed directly at him, he wouldn''t have noticed him at all as his aura was inconspicuous compared to the sharpness that was exuded by the sword forest.

    Fell''s hand flashed in front of him as he expressed his politeness by pressing his fist against his palm, a common habit that ingrained in his body whenever he fought an opponent in .

    A laugh escaped from the silent forest, killing the silence that had taken place in their surroundings. "You''re quite the polite one! Well, if you came this far in your placement fights, it means that politeness isn''t your only asset.", his voice was slightly provocative and reflected his hidden battle intent.

    Fell laughed off the man''s provocation as he stepped forward toward him. "Shall we begin our dance?" he asked with a grin on his lips as his leg kicked the floor and projected his figure toward the man. His opponent''s eyes opened widely as he focused on seeing through Fell''s movement path. With a deduction that took him less than a single second, he advanced forward to meet Fell in a frontal charge.

    They crossed the distance between each other in a single moment. Fell clenched his fist and hurled it forward while his opponent sent a fist of his own; their action happened quasi-instantly as they engaged the fight as soon as they saw each other.

    Fell''s entire body felt excitement as he entered battle mode. Their fists even interlocked goosebumps made their appearance on his body as his bathed in a joyful pressure. Ever since his fight against the black skeleton, he wanted to feel the same sensation of standing half a step inside of death''s door.

    A perverse battle intent resided in his psyche, and he wanted nothing less than a fight to the death.

    But the sensation at the end of his fist disappointed him; he couldn''t help but find the weight in his opponent''s fist lacking, and easily sent him tumbling in the distance.

    Fell''s eyes opened widely as he saw his opponent fly away at a breakneck speed. His body made contact with several trees in his passage, but he didn''t break through them, and even weirder his body began rebounding from one tree to another.

    His opponent''s youthful voice appeared from several positions in his surroundings as his body was constantly changing position due to the rebounds. "By the way, I go by the nickname of SoftGum. If you didn''t notice yet, my strength is quite lacking on its own, but that doesn''t mean I''m weak!"

 Chapter 155 Final Push Part Two

    "It''s even quite the opposite!", SoftGum''s voice appeared behind Fell. His body had rebounded against the trees dozens of times due to a single exchange of strength between him and Fell. "I''ve been told that I''m quite strong!"

    Fell swiftly turned around, and hurled another fist toward his opponent to test the water. Their fists connected another time, and Fell took a step back while SoftGum''s body was sent back with even more strength.

    SoftGum''s rebounding speed doubled, thankfully it was still in a range where Fell could see his figure propel himself every time he hit a tree. Fell couldn''t help but doubt his eyes when he saw his opponent''s tactics; it could be said that he fought diverse opponents, but it was the first time in his life that he faced someone that moved like this.

    "The universe is quite vast. A little bit of humility is never bad¡­", he thought as his eyes followed the rebounding SoftGum. "His speed keeps growing every time he makes contact with an object.", he assessed while following his opponent''s position with his senses.

    He recorded the different angles SoftGum was using to rebound in his mind, but the actions revealed to be quite difficult as the multitude of trees helped his opponent''s way of fighting. "Let''s try to avoid confrontation!", he thought as he took a step to the left, evading a dashing SoftGum that came hurling to his chest.

    "If I''m not wrong, the more I deal damage to him, the higher his speed will get!", he thought as he felt the net around of him tighten. "But If I stay too passive, there is no way for me to deal him any subsequent damage, and I''ll just end up losing.", his mind worked at a fast pace to devise a plan.

    If he fought mindlessly against this type of opponent, he would only be walking towards defeat, and that wasn''t an acceptable outcome. He began dodging SoftGum''s bodily attacks one after the other, while his mind looked for his win condition.

    "First, I need to find a way to reduce his speed!", the moment he took his decision, he patiently waited for an opening. SoftGum''s body produced a sound behind a tree, and rebounded several times before hurling towards Fell from the side. Fell faked that he didn''t see him, and waited for the last moment before softly setting on the ground. He evaded the attack in the last moment, and with a twist of his waist, he sent a devastating upward kick to SoftGum''s stomach.

    He felt as if his kick made contact with a soft ball, one that was used by kids to play around. SoftGum was sent piercing toward the air, there were no obstacles in his path, and Fell doubted that the man could rebound using the air.

    "Hahahaha! Nice kick, it felt quite great.", SoftGum''s childish laughter resounded from the sky. "My last opponent used the same technique. Yet he still lost!". SoftGum''s body produced a sound similar to rolling waves, "You see, I don''t just store the momentum of the attack I receive. I can also release them, like this!".

    His body changed trajectory in a split second, and as if he had hit an invisible wall, he rebounded with even more strength than before. "My body has already accumulated the strength of more than a hundred rebounds!", his voice escaped from his body as he turned into a meteor that was flying straight toward Fell''s position.

    SoftGum''s body acquired a red hue, fire and sparks appeared around his body as he descended toward the ground in a meteoric descent.

    A grin appeared on Fell''s lips as his body felt the tremendous danger that was closing the gap on him. The same sensation he felt when fighting Karukobi and the black skeleton resurfaced; he felt as if his mind was boosted by the adrenaline he was releasing due to the pressure produced by SoftGum.

    His hand flashed, and his sword appeared in his hand. ''Solary Dive'' was swiftly executed by legs as he mimicked SoftGum''s technique. He used his legs as he began propelling himself against the trees. A few of them were leveled entirely due to the strength his legs produced, and after a few rebounds, he attained his top speed as he felt the air friction hinder him.

    Then with one last jump, he flew toward the sky in the same trajectory as the red meteor that was flying toward the ground. Sun Below was activated in an instant, and his sword turned into an incandescent light as it turned into ablaze.

    "Let''s if you can rebound from a piercing blow!", Fell exclaimed with a grin on his lips. The sharpness from the sword forest disappeared and was replaced by the sword intent that came from his sword. SoftGum laughed at the provocation, and his speed grew by a little before they made contact with each other.

    "You fell for it, just like the other!", SoftGum laughed before feeling the tip of a sword make contact with his body. "You see, softness is the ultimate tool!"

    "Fuck!", Fell couldn''t help but curse as he didn''t feel any weight at the end of his sword. He felt as if all the momentum he had accumulated was being sucked out at the tip of his sword. A sound similar to gelatin traveling at the speed of sound resounded through the fighting arena, and SoftGum''s figure disappeared in the sky.

    Fell''s feet landed on the ground. He raised his head toward the sky as he looked at SoftGum, but his bizarre opponent''s figure didn''t appear in his sight.

    "Where the fuck did he go?", he couldn''t help but exclaim as he didn''t see his opponent even after a few seconds passed. Time ticked slowly as it was now minute, then in the center of his field of view appeared a system''s notification.

    ''User Stroke win! W:4/L:0''

    His figure trembled as he nearly tumbled down from the information. He didn''t know the exact reason for his win, but SoftGum had given him the impression that the match would be tough.

 Chapter 156 Final Push Part Three

    "Well, If it''s like this¡­", he sighed with a minute raise of his shoulder. Dots appeared on his body as he reappeared in his fighting platform.

    In another mountain peaks, a youth could be seen cursing endlessly as tears nearly spilled from his eyes. "How the fuck is that even possible?!", a string of endless curse escaped from his lips. "Shitty system, how is that possible to count as a loss?"

    "How does attaining an impossible area count as a defeat!?", bitterness was apparent in his tone, and SoftGum couldn''t help but feel like the game''s system failed him.

    The Mountain AI had seen the fight and was currently shaken by what happened in Strokes and SoftGum''s fight. SoftGum''s soft technique had made his body attain peaks that weren''t taken into account by the game ¡ª turning his fight into an instant loss where, in fact, he hadn''t received any damage.

    "Oh-Oh-Oh! What''s the matter young one?", the mountain''s voice appeared in SoftGum''s fighting platform as it tried to calm the youth. But what the AI received was only an endless string of curses that left him shaken to the core. He even had to look up for a few ones as it didn''t understand them but regretted instantly when it knew their meanings.

    "This game is dogshit!? How the hell can you make your players go through that?"

    Thankfully the AI was prepared for this as it promised the youth compensation for what happened. Only then did he calm down, and the AI managed to send a detailed report about the matter to the higher ups of Battle Center.

    Fell was also quite affected by his fourth match, but the fact that he ended up being the winner due to the weird circumstances made him put the event in the back of his mind. "I guess this is the first time something like this happened.", he thought as he remembered the slightly arrogant youth he faced. SoftGum''s figure appeared in his mind; and he couldn''t help but silently praise him for his skills, albeit they were quite unusual.

    "One win left, and the reward shall be mine!", he exclaimed loudly with sparkling eyes. Without further thoughts, he advanced towards the center of the fighting platform.

    After a minute, lights flashed, his body disappeared as it transformed into numerous dots. He reappeared in a vast fighting platform; its size dozens of times more significant than the one he had in his last matches. His skin tightened as he felt that the enormous pressure that had built up in the place; he knew that everything was only a virtual reproduction, but that didn''t stop his mind from basking in it.

    The moment he got accustomed to the special aura that lingered in the fighting platform, his surroundings turned clearer, and he noticed a few other peculiarities. At first, he noticed a golden ceiling hanging on top of the fighting platform. Then he came to understand that it was, in fact, a golden colored sky when his eyes saw the milky white clouds that moved quietly with the wind. Fell came to notice the ground under his feet, a crimson red colored soil that made him think how much blood needed to be spilled on it for it to acquire that color.

    All those things were noticed the moment Fell entered the fighting platform of his fifth placement matches. And it didn''t take him much more time to notice the youth standing dozens of meters away from him; his posture was noble with a straight back that stood tall like a mountain peak, his clothes were part of a culture that Fell didn''t know and reminded him of the Asian style that existed on Earth. On top of his clothes, the youth in front of Fell wore a long spotless white gown that quietly moved with the wind. A pair of sword-like eyebrows rested on top of his eyes, eyes that were as calm as a water surface and didn''t show any emotion.

    Although the youth in front of Fell had a slender body, Fell was sure that hidden in it was a power strong enough to raise oceans and level mountains. He also noticed that the youth was equipped with a sword that hung at his waist.

    "Finally, someone who uses the same type of weapon as me!", Fell couldn''t help but think as he tried to see through the youth in front of him.

    At some point, he noticed that the youth was also looking at him, albeit he didn''t seem to care too much as shown by the empty look in his eyes. After a few seconds where no one of them moved an inch passed, a reaction appeared on the white clothed youth as he took a step in while opening his lips.

    "Shall we begin?", his voice was soft and didn''t portray any trace of battle intent. He gave the impression to Fell that he had invited him for a cup of tea and biscuits, not a battle where both of them would cross blood and steel.

    Fell nodded towards him as he swiftly unsheathed his sword in a single motion. He began approaching the youth with cautious steps with his sight locked on him; any movement from the white clothed youth wouldn''t escape Fell''s notice. The young man in front of him smiled as he felt the intention in Fell''s gaze. He copied his opponent''s action and unsheathed the sword in his hand. As he readied himself for battle, his lips opened as he spoke in a loud yet calm voice.

    "You should know that this fight is different from the others you''ve had in Battle League.", he stepped forward toward Fell as he explained. "You''ve faced many players to arrive here, but I am no player of battle league¡­"

    Fell didn''t understand what the youth in front of him meant by that, but an ominous feel took over his mind as he couldn''t help but pause in his steps.

 Chapter 157 Final Push Part Four

    "I am part of the system!", his voice boomed as the white clothed youth''s hand flashed in front of him. A seal was swiftly formed by his finger, and the sword in his hand left his grasp.

    Under Fell''s shocked watch, the sword quietly hovered in front of the white clothed youth. Another seal was executed by Fell''s opponent, and the flying sword pierced through the air and flew in the direction of Fell''s position.

    The speed of the attack shook Fell to the core of his soul as he had never heard about such feats. He readied himself as he resumed the movement of his legs, and dashed toward the left as he began avoiding the flying sword''s trajectory. Unfortunately for the cultivator from New Casablanca, the flying sword seemed to follow his every move and redirected itself in his pursuit. Dodging the attacks wasn''t enough.

    Fell didn''t hesitate an instant to activate ''Ghostly Stutter'', and a trail of red soil appeared behind his evasive steps. The flying sword behind him followed with even more speed as it began closing the gap with his back. "What the hell is this flying sword!?", he thought as he felt a shudder traverse his body.

    Trusting his instincts, he stopped in his run instantaneously and dodged to the side without any hesitation. The piercing tip of a sword missed him by a narrow margin and wasn''t far from piercing through his skull. After missing him, the flying weapon flew forward toward the white clothed youth before circling around him like an excited puppy.

    "Your reflexes aren''t too shabby.", a soft voice entered through Fell''s ear as he got up from the ground. He couldn''t help but feel annoyed by the man''s commentary and stopped himself from rushing forward like a mad man. He patted the dust on his clothes, and carefully watched for any movement from the flying sword while slowly advancing.

    He knew that against such an opponent who relied on controlling the pace of the fight, he needed utmost calmness, or else he would just end up playing in his opponent''s hand. Fell calmly advanced with minute motions from his feet, albeit at a snail pace, he continued closing the gap between his current position and his opponent. The white clothed youth ignored his action, a smug smile appeared on his slender jaw, and he seemed to be mocking Fell for his old antics.

    But neither opponents broke the situation. Fell cautiously treaded one inch at a time as he didn''t saw any movement from the white clothed youth. He could hear his own heart beat through his chest, and adrenaline awakened his senses as his mind knew that his current opponent was far more dangerous than the black skeleton.

    "Not moving anymore?", the white clothed youth opened his lips to humor Fell''s current action. "Well, I want to see you run again!", he explained. A smug grin appeared on his face while executing a seal with both hands.

    A white color appeared on the surface of the flying sword before darting forward. Its speed nearly tripled as it crossed the distance that separated it from Fell in an instant.

    To the contrary of what the white clothed youth expected; Fell didn''t move back but advanced toward the flying sword, and his running form was different from what it was before. His torso was nearly perpendicular to the ground, and his leg would traverse a large distance every step.

    "Running on all four? Are you some kind of animal?", an annoying calm voice entered Fell''s ears. His sword was tightly clenched in his hand as he advanced toward the flying sword.

    In the last moment before the impact, he shifted his weight and changed his trajectory. The flying sword followed suit, but all of that was part of Fell''s plan as he repeated his last action. In a fluid yet savage motion, his body waved to the right and the flying sword followed suit. During the second weight shifting, Fell''s arm snapped as his sword flew in an upward angle. The edge of his sword cut through the air in front of him. It made contact with the flying sword that was in the process of changing its trajectory.

    "Oh-", the white clothed youth''s lips opened in surprise as he saw his sword get swatted to the side by Fell. Yet his eyes were still calm as he saw Fell rush through him while his flying sword weakly hovered like a fly. Fell''s eyes burned with intent as he couldn''t hold himself any more, he felt like his blood would flow backward if he didn''t cut through the white clothed youth''s smug smile.

    Under his fierce rush, his boots had broken down due to activating ''Solary Dive'' to the maximum speed he could attain. In an instant, he appeared in front of the immortal looking youth and executed a fierce slash toward the neck of the barehanded man. All along, Fell''s enemy kept that same smug smirk on his tender face, and his eyes were frighteningly calm as he gazed Fell''s sword approach dangerously his neck.

    His lips opened, and he murmured an odd sentence that Fell didn''t hear, his hand also moved and executed dozens of seals in a split second. Shadows even appeared due to the high speed of his execution, and several seals were superimposed onto it. Then came something that Fell didn''t expect; his ears were flooded with a buzzing sound similar to vibrating steel.

    From his peripheral field of view came an abnormal golden colored flash of light. He then heard a sound that he had never heard once in his life, but even with that, he knew perfectly what it was and could even hear that the sound was dangerously approaching his position.

    All of that happened during his slash, the one that was aimed at the white clothed youth''s neck. A flying sword buzzed at it pierced through the air. He knew that he didn''t have time to retract his movement and could only push forward.

 Chapter 158 Final Push Part Five

    The screeching flying sword pierced through the air while raising the crimson soil of the fighting platform. The fight had turned into a moment of life and death in a split second. He hadn''t even had time to deal a blow to the barehanded white clothed youth that the flying sword had flown to rescue its master, ready to parry any attack.

    The instant he knew that stopping his sword strike would end his own life, he decided to change the trajectory of his blow to change his fate. Instead of aiming for a clean slash through his neck, he changed the angle with a movement of his wrist and rotated his ankle and waist in an instant.

    A whirlwind appeared under Fell''s feet as the speed of his rotating waist augmented in an instant. From being back to the flying sword; the next instant, he found himself facing it, and saw the golden color it had acquired. He knew that he didn''t have the time to execute any flashy sword technique to redirect it; therefore, he chose to face it head on.

    He decided that going for a direct confrontation was the only way towards survival.

    His arm bulged, and veins popped around his forearm and wrist before he executed a simple downward slash that used the entirety of his bodily strength. A sharp hiss escaped from his throat as he expelled the air in his lung during his effort, and the two swords made contact with a flash of sparks.

    Fell was sent flying backward and flew behind the white clothed youth by using the last impact to redirect his movement. Meanwhile, the sword''s trajectory was slightly changed but managed to arrive in front of its master.

    "Nice answer. I know more than a dozen of cultivators of your level who would have lost their head during this exchange.", a commendable look could be seen on the face of the white colored youth. Even the way he used to speak with Fell changed as he gave the latter the impression he was in front of a senior brother.

    Fell grasp on his sword tightened as he nearly dropped his weapon. The skin around his wrist was slightly swollen, and a reddish hue was apparent on it, showing the strength that was contained in the flying sword. He had evaded death by a near margin, but now was faced with the same scenario as before.

    "I severely underestimated the speed and control of his flying sword¡­", he thought while sucking as much breath in his lung as he could. "I''m back at square one¡­ I can''t cross the distance between us without facing retaliation from his sword¡­ And even if I manage to deal with his sword before I can advance enough to use my sword, It will come strike at my back¡­", his mind worked at top speed as he tried to recover from their last exchange. He was processing all the information he gathered during the clash.

    He wasn''t aware of the reason why the white clothed youth didn''t attack him again, but he wouldn''t be ungrateful and would use the opportunity to regain his breath. This current fight was similar to the one with the black skeleton, and it was dozens of times harder as the man seemed to be highly intelligent.

    After a few seconds passed, an annoyed tsk escaped from Fell''s lips as his hand moved through his disheveled hairs. His eyes calmed down after a split second as he gazed at the white clothed man.

    "Fine! You want to leave me as much time as I want?", he thought as a vicious smile appeared on his lips.

    "Oh¡­ That''s quite the scary smile, there.", the white clothed youth didn''t leave this opportunity to tease Fell as if he was a kid.

    Fell closed his eyes as he felt he had no more options against the white clothed youth. From their last exchange, he was aware of the enormous gap between their strength. Their range was nothing apart, and the strength of their attack couldn''t even be compared. His wrist was still shacking from their last exchange, and his will to fight was nearly extinguished.

    A scripture appeared in Fell''s mind as he regulated his breath. It was a single character, and the moment it began appearing, the air around Fell changed as his cloth began moving slightly. An interested look appeared on the white clothed youth''s face as he noticed the change that happened in the space surrounding Fell. He shut his lips and decided not to bother the young cultivator from New Casablanca, and patiently waited for him to prepare his attack.

    He didn''t know if it was just an empty bluff, but he trusted that the youth in front of him would show him a few more interesting things. And as he trusted that his flying sword could defend him against anything, he decided that waiting would benefit him. On top of that, the players who won through their four placement matches were far too low, and although he was an AI, he still wanted to enjoy this fight as much as he could.

    Fell had completely shut down his senses; he had fully focused on drawing the character that was in the space scripture. Line after line appeared in his mind, and after a few minutes, he managed to draw it completely in his first try. He killed down the excitement that was growing and focused on the fight that was happening.

    His eyes opened, and he saw the white clothed youth''s eyes locked on his figure. On his face was an interested look, the one which would appear when one was waiting for a revealing trick in a circus. Fell couldn''t help but feel his anger boil his blood, but he managed to calm down as he only had one opportunity to pass through this trial.

    "You like flying sword?", a joking tone was apparent in Fell''s voice. "Here''s mine!", he exclaimed while stepping hard on the ground.

 Chapter 159 Final Push Part Five

    His lips opened as he inhaled every bit of air he could, filling his lungs to the brim of their capacities. Then his waist rotated at the same time as his shoulder moved in a throwing motion. A whipping sound exploded from his position as his sword quit his hand.

    His form was perfect, and his sword was thrown in a straight path towards the white colored youth. It broke through the speed of sound and kept getting faster as it broke the distance with the virtual immortal. Who, in turn, sent his flying sword to intercept Fell''s attack without breaking a sweat in front of the weird stratagem.

    He was aware that the young cultivator in front of him didn''t know any special control technique; as for his sword being a special flying sword, that was even more improbable.

    The two swords nearly met each other the instant they were sent away by their masters. Fell''s sword wasn''t controlled and was sent purely with bodily strength; changing its trajectory was more than enough to counter Fell''s plan, and the virtual immortal was aware of that.

    The tip of the swords made contact with each other. Sparks flew everywhere near their impact, and the sound of metal breaking into several parts was heard shortly after that.

    "Looks like your attack was nothing more than a desperate last attempt¡­", the white clothed immortal sighed as he saw his flying sword turn Fell''s weapon into bits.

    But as he looked at Fell, he couldn''t help but feel that something was off when he gazed at his eyes. Eyes that burned with battle intent; a look that shouldn''t be on someone who lost all hope.

    That made him execute a hand seal to order his sword to come back. But his attempt at protecting himself failed as he had noticed too late. And Fell had already a smug smile on his face that showed him he had been outsmarted.

    The white clothed immortal felt fluctuations in the space in front of him. A distressed look blemished his untainted face as he tried raising his arms to protect his vital organs.

    A sharp and deadly sword intent appeared out of nowhere; Deep lashes and gashes appeared in the white clothed youth, and he took a step back due to the deadly force that assaulted his body.

    A pained grunt escaped from his throat as his eyes reddened. His white clothes turned red after a few moments, and his body sustained dozens of impacts as if he had faced Fell''s broken sword with his own body.

    Blood ticked down his lips as he looked at Fell with twitching eyes. "Looks like your hidden attack was too weak to finish me in one blow.", he exclaimed as a hideous grin appeared on his face. He tried moving his right hand to form a seal, but he found that he couldn''t raise any of his fingers due to a slash on his tendons.

    Thankfully, the fingers in his left hand were still capable of minute movements, and he began executing the seals to order his sword to attack.

    Fell saw his action, and couldn''t help but feel that he had been unlucky as the white clothed youth was nearly killed. The seal in his mind was in the midst of disappearing, and he had no weapon to protect himself against the deadly flying sword. He knew that the distance between him and the white clothed youth couldn''t be crossed fast enough before the flying sword would be activated.

    But as a last resort, he decided that he should still try as waiting for death wasn''t part of his personality. His leg kicked the ground as he dashed toward the white clothed youth, and before he had even crossed half the distance that separated him with the virtual immortal, a buzzing sound resounded as a flying sword darted in his direction.

    It pierced through the air while releasing a screeching sound that made it look like It was crying for its master''s injuries.

    Not knowing what to do, Fell continued advancing forward as he knew that a single well placed hit could end the virtual immortal''s life. Although he had no sword, his limbs were more than enough to cut through flesh and bones. The action happened in an instant, but to Fell, it seemed as if time had slowed to a snail''s pace.

    He could see the fine particles of dust raise in the air every time his feet would hit the ground. The buzzing sound that came from the vibrating flying sword turned into a cacophonous hell that made his head feel like it was going to explode. During this moment of hyper-focus, in the middle of life and death, an idea popped in his mind.

    An idea that made him think that he actually had a sliver of hope to succeed. He braced himself and stepped forward with even more resolution to pass through this trial alive.

    The flying sword appeared in his eyes as clear as day; he even saw the air split in front of it as it pierced through the air at an obnoxious speed. The sword appeared in front of him, and he only lacked a single step for the white robed man to enter his range of assault.

    A crazed look appeared in his eyes as he thrust his palm viciously in the direction of the flying sword.

    Without any surprise, the sword cut through his palm with ease, and continued through its path as it delved deeper into his arm. A horrendous pain assaulted his flesh and bones, but he continued stepping forward without any pause in his movement.

    A surprised expression appeared on the virtual immortal, and before he could even gasp for breath in front of the incredible scene, Fell clenched the palm where the sword had plunged deeply, and blocked the vicious weapon in an undying grasp.

    Thud! He finished stepping forward with teeth clenched with utmost strength to resist the pain.

 Chapter 160 Accepting Ones Fate Part One

    Fell''s eyes glinted as a sharp intent was reflected on them. His left arm was trembling, and a buzzing noise was escaping from his flesh as the flying sword was cutting his flesh to get out.

    His left arm flashed forward with his hand forming a knife palm. A vicious howl escaped his throat as he threw everything he had in this last attack. Right after he finished sending his attack; his left arm exploded and turned into a mush of broken bones and mangled flesh.

    A screeching sound escaped from what was left of it, and a bloodied sword flew out of his arm to defend its master.

    But it was too late, Fell''s right hand had already plunged deep inside of the white robed youth who didn''t have any strength to defend himself. Fell''s attack pierced through his chest, and impaled his heart in one swift motion.

    On the face of the virtual immortal was a mixture of surprise and respect, and in his eyes could be seen reminiscence as he gazed at the opponent in front of him. He couldn''t understand how someone could ignore his own wellness in an attempt to inflict more damage on his opponent. A ruthless behavior that made Fell face unimaginable pain to secure his victory.

    Time seemed to come to a standstill as both opponents stood near each other. Fell''s hand was still plunged deep inside of the virtual immortal''s chest; he felt as if he could see through the man''s soul in his last moments.

    A powerful aura of reminiscence surrounded them, and Fell noticed his surroundings changing at a fast pace. He didn''t know the cause, nor did he understand what was happening, but he began seeing specks of the white robbed youth in front of him.

    He didn''t make understand much of the wisp of images that appeared in his mind; but he came to learn that he was someone important, part of a large group of individuals. A sect that taught cultivation in a hidden planet of the universe.

    He didn''t see any technology, nor could he make head or tail of the world he saw through the man''s memory. But those pictures ingrained themselves deeply in his soul, and he found himself lost in his life.

    His childhood was tranquil, a far fetch from his life in the Core. He saw him grow in a peaceful environment, with dozens of individuals near him. There was also a woman who left him a deep impression. Although she had a weak aura surrounding her and seemed like she was sick, she had stood for him on several occasions, and had always been here for him.

    Then he saw his life in the sect, where a crew of faithful servants would always follow him. He found it weird how he assumed they were servants, because their smiles and their interactions with the white robbed youth clearly showed that what they cultivated was true friendship.

    Then he saw him grow as a man, and saw how he shouldered many responsibilities in the sect. He saw him fight with his flying sword, and execute dozens of sword skills that would have taken his life in an instant.

    Fell felt a tremendous confusion, down to his very soul, when his mind passed through those bribe of memories. And it was only when it ended, that time took back it''s properties and resumed its course.

    But before that, he saw one last image that left him shaking from surprise. He saw the man kneeling in front of a mountain, the very same mountain where he grew in that sect. Except that there wasn''t anyone there, the sect had disappeared, and what was left was a view filled with destruction and chaos.

    One last howl left the white clothed man, and the specks of memories ended with it.

    Droplets of blood began falling on the ground, and the virtual immortal''s body turned into dots of light before disappearing from the fighting platform. Before his body fully decomposed into bits of light, he looked at Fell with an amused gaze that wasn''t one and the young cultivator from the Core noticed a speck of sadness hidden in it.

    He had fought with him in a battle to the death, but the feeling he was getting from his fifth match was completely different from the rest. And although he felt respect for every opponent he had met during his experience in the game; he couldn''t help but feel like his fight with the white robbed youth was too different. While he had made him feel despair and tried to break his will to fight, he had strangely acted like a senior brother who was in the midst of teaching his junior.

    And that sensation left him a bitter after taste especially when he executed the killing blow, and had the opportunity to see through the man''s life.

    ''Stroke Wins''

    He noticed that the message from the system was shorter than the last times. But he didn''t think too much about it and simply kept standing where he had ended the fight without moving an inch. His injuries had disappeared, and the arm that had been reduced to a mess of mangled flesh and broken bones had completely recovered.

    Although he was aware that all of this was happening inside of a game. He couldn''t help but have his mind influenced by what he had experience as it had been too intense, and too odd to top it up.

    A few seconds after the first message, he noticed another system interface pop in front of his eyes.

    ''Congratulation on winning your first five matches!''

    ''The system will examine your performance and a reward equivalent to it will be given to you''

    ''Please wait.''

    After reading through the successive message, he sighed as he remembered the goal of his bitter fights. Only now that he had won did he remember that he had been doing all of this for the special reward the mountain had told him about.

 Chapter 159 Accepting Ones Fate Part One

    His lips opened as he inhaled every bit of air he could, filling his lungs to the brim of their capacities. Then his waist rotated at the same time as his shoulder moved in a throwing motion. A whipping sound exploded from his position as his sword quit his hand.

    His form was perfect, and his sword was thrown in a straight path towards the white colored youth. It broke through the speed of sound and kept getting faster as it broke the distance with the virtual immortal. Who, in turn, sent his flying sword to intercept Fell''s attack without breaking a sweat in front of the weird stratagem.

    He was aware that the young cultivator in front of him didn''t know any special control technique; as for his sword being a special flying sword, that was even more improbable.

    The two swords nearly met each other the instant they were sent away by their masters. Fell''s sword wasn''t controlled and was sent purely with bodily strength; changing its trajectory was more than enough to counter Fell''s plan, and the virtual immortal was aware of that.

    The tip of the swords made contact with each other. Sparks flew everywhere near their impact, and the sound of metal breaking into several parts was heard shortly after that.

    "Looks like your attack was nothing more than a desperate last attempt¡­", the white clothed immortal sighed as he saw his flying sword turn Fell''s weapon into bits.

    But as he looked at Fell, he couldn''t help but feel that something was off when he gazed at his eyes. Eyes that burned with battle intent; a look that shouldn''t be on someone who lost all hope.

    That made him execute a hand seal to order his sword to come back. But his attempt at protecting himself failed as he had noticed too late. And Fell had already a smug smile on his face that showed him he had been outsmarted.

    The white clothed immortal felt fluctuations in the space in front of him. A distressed look blemished his untainted face as he tried raising his arms to protect his vital organs.

    A sharp and deadly sword intent appeared out of nowhere; Deep lashes and gashes appeared in the white clothed youth, and he took a step back due to the deadly force that assaulted his body.

    A pained grunt escaped from his throat as his eyes reddened. His white clothes turned red after a few moments, and his body sustained dozens of impacts as if he had faced Fell''s broken sword with his own body.

    Blood ticked down his lips as he looked at Fell with twitching eyes. "Looks like your hidden attack was too weak to finish me in one blow.", he exclaimed as a hideous grin appeared on his face. He tried moving his right hand to form a seal, but he found that he couldn''t raise any of his fingers due to a slash on his tendons.

    Thankfully, the fingers in his left hand were still capable of minute movements, and he began executing the seals to order his sword to attack.

    Fell saw his action, and couldn''t help but feel that he had been unlucky as the white clothed youth was nearly killed. The seal in his mind was in the midst of disappearing, and he had no weapon to protect himself against the deadly flying sword. He knew that the distance between him and the white clothed youth couldn''t be crossed fast enough before the flying sword would be activated.

    But as a last resort, he decided that he should still try as waiting for death wasn''t part of his personality. His leg kicked the ground as he dashed toward the white clothed youth, and before he had even crossed half the distance that separated him with the virtual immortal, a buzzing sound resounded as a flying sword darted in his direction.

    It pierced through the air while releasing a screeching sound that made it look like It was crying for its master''s injuries.

    Not knowing what to do, Fell continued advancing forward as he knew that a single well placed hit could end the virtual immortal''s life. Although he had no sword, his limbs were more than enough to cut through flesh and bones. The action happened in an instant, but to Fell, it seemed as if time had slowed to a snail''s pace.

    He could see the fine particles of dust raise in the air every time his feet would hit the ground. The buzzing sound that came from the vibrating flying sword turned into a cacophonous hell that made his head feel like it was going to explode. During this moment of hyper-focus, in the middle of life and death, an idea popped in his mind.

    An idea that made him think that he actually had a sliver of hope to succeed. He braced himself and stepped forward with even more resolution to pass through this trial alive.

    The flying sword appeared in his eyes as clear as day; he even saw the air split in front of it as it pierced through the air at an obnoxious speed. The sword appeared in front of him, and he only lacked a single step for the white robed man to enter his range of assault. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

    A crazed look appeared in his eyes as he thrust his palm viciously in the direction of the flying sword.

    Without any surprise, the sword cut through his palm with ease, and continued through its path as it delved deeper into his arm. A horrendous pain assaulted his flesh and bones, but he continued stepping forward without any pause in his movement.

    A surprised expression appeared on the virtual immortal, and before he could even gasp for breath in front of the incredible scene, Fell clenched the palm where the sword had plunged deeply, and blocked the vicious weapon in an undying grasp.

    Thud! He finished stepping forward with teeth clenched with utmost strength to resist the pain.

 Chapter 160 Accepting Ones Fate Part Two

    Fell''s eyes glinted as a sharp intent was reflected on them. His left arm was trembling, and a buzzing noise was escaping from his flesh as the flying sword was cutting his flesh to get out.

    His left arm flashed forward with his hand forming a knife palm. A vicious howl escaped his throat as he threw everything he had in this last attack. Right after he finished sending his attack; his left arm exploded and turned into a mush of broken bones and mangled flesh.

    A screeching sound escaped from what was left of it, and a bloodied sword flew out of his arm to defend its master.

    But it was too late, Fell''s right hand had already plunged deep inside of the white robed youth who didn''t have any strength to defend himself. Fell''s attack pierced through his chest, and impaled his heart in one swift motion.

    On the face of the virtual immortal was a mixture of surprise and respect, and in his eyes could be seen reminiscence as he gazed at the opponent in front of him. He couldn''t understand how someone could ignore his own wellness in an attempt to inflict more damage on his opponent. A ruthless behavior that made Fell face unimaginable pain to secure his victory.

    Time seemed to come to a standstill as both opponents stood near each other. Fell''s hand was still plunged deep inside of the virtual immortal''s chest; he felt as if he could see through the man''s soul in his last moments.

    A powerful aura of reminiscence surrounded them, and Fell noticed his surroundings changing at a fast pace. He didn''t know the cause, nor did he understand what was happening, but he began seeing specks of the white robbed youth in front of him.

    He didn''t make understand much of the wisp of images that appeared in his mind; but he came to learn that he was someone important, part of a large group of individuals. A sect that taught cultivation in a hidden planet of the universe.

    He didn''t see any technology, nor could he make head or tail of the world he saw through the man''s memory. But those pictures ingrained themselves deeply in his soul, and he found himself lost in his life.

    His childhood was tranquil, a far fetch from his life in the Core. He saw him grow in a peaceful environment, with dozens of individuals near him. There was also a woman who left him a deep impression. Although she had a weak aura surrounding her and seemed like she was sick, she had stood for him on several occasions, and had always been here for him. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

    Then he saw his life in the sect, where a crew of faithful servants would always follow him. He found it weird how he assumed they were servants, because their smiles and their interactions with the white robbed youth clearly showed that what they cultivated was true friendship.

    Then he saw him grow as a man, and saw how he shouldered many responsibilities in the sect. He saw him fight with his flying sword, and execute dozens of sword skills that would have taken his life in an instant.

    Fell felt a tremendous confusion, down to his very soul, when his mind passed through those bribe of memories. And it was only when it ended, that time took back it''s properties and resumed its course.

    But before that, he saw one last image that left him shaking from surprise. He saw the man kneeling in front of a mountain, the very same mountain where he grew in that sect. Except that there wasn''t anyone there, the sect had disappeared, and what was left was a view filled with destruction and chaos.

    One last howl left the white clothed man, and the specks of memories ended with it.

    Droplets of blood began falling on the ground, and the virtual immortal''s body turned into dots of light before disappearing from the fighting platform. Before his body fully decomposed into bits of light, he looked at Fell with an amused gaze that wasn''t one and the young cultivator from the Core noticed a speck of sadness hidden in it.

    He had fought with him in a battle to the death, but the feeling he was getting from his fifth match was completely different from the rest. And although he felt respect for every opponent he had met during his experience in the game; he couldn''t help but feel like his fight with the white robbed youth was too different. While he had made him feel despair and tried to break his will to fight, he had strangely acted like a senior brother who was in the midst of teaching his junior.

    And that sensation left him a bitter after taste especially when he executed the killing blow, and had the opportunity to see through the man''s life.

    ''Stroke Wins''

    He noticed that the message from the system was shorter than the last times. But he didn''t think too much about it and simply kept standing where he had ended the fight without moving an inch. His injuries had disappeared, and the arm that had been reduced to a mess of mangled flesh and broken bones had completely recovered.

    Although he was aware that all of this was happening inside of a game. He couldn''t help but have his mind influenced by what he had experience as it had been too intense, and too odd to top it up.

    A few seconds after the first message, he noticed another system interface pop in front of his eyes.

    ''Congratulation on winning your first five matches!''

    ''The system will examine your performance and a reward equivalent to it will be given to you''

    ''Please wait.''

    After reading through the successive message, he sighed as he remembered the goal of his bitter fights. Only now that he had won did he remember that he had been doing all of this for the special reward the mountain had told him about.

 Chapter 161 Accepting Ones Fate Part Three

    ''You have been granted a tutoring session with one of the elder''s Avatar.''

    ''Please don''t log out and wait as he is currently on his way.''

    His pupils constricted when his eyes fell on the message, and he swallowed his saliva while thinking. "A battle league elder!?", he couldn''t help but try to imagine those mysterious figures that stood at the top of battle league''s corporation.

    The painting he had seen in New Casablanca''s battle center appeared in his mind, and his eyes glowed as he couldn''t help but feel anticipation as he was going to meet an incredibly strong figure. Someone who stood on top of the universal food chain; how strong was he compared to his brother Anzar.

    Due to Anzar not showcasing his strength in a special way, Fell had quite the trouble when it came to be judging the blue haired man''s strength. And that wasn''t surprising in any way as Anzar was one of Earth''s strongest cultivators; if he didn''t want other cultivators to sense his cultivation base, no one would pass through his veil. Unless one used a mystic soul-based technique, then that was nearly impossible to gauge his true cultivation base.

    That''s not even taking into account the fact that Fell hadn''t started his cultivation path when Anzar was teaching him. He couldn''t help but think about the days they passed together, and that warmed his heart and washed away part of the bitterness he was feeling.

    Time passed as his mind was filled with random thoughts about cultivation. At some point, he sat on the red soil under his feet and closed his eyes as he began practicing the drawing of the spatial seal.

    The spatial scripture had played a significant part in his fight against the Virtual Immortal. Although a big part of his gamble was due to the white clothed youth''s passivity, he couldn''t help but think that the mysterious technique could turn into one of his greatest assets if trained correctly. As his mind revolved around the technique, he thought about a technique he had looted in the beginning of the journey.

    When raiding Darksun gang''s general quarters, he had acquired several items in their treasury. And one of them was the lighting based technique Vicious Zhang had used during their fight. He could still remember the lighting''s destructive nature that nearly fried him to death, and as he compared it with Little Gold''s lightning. He couldn''t help but find them similar in nature.

    As that thought appeared in his mind, he slapped himself in the face as an idea popped in his mind.

    "Little Gold''s egg appeared right after my fight against Vicious Zhang!", his mind boomed from the discovery. Fell couldn''t help but feel ashamed for not having noticed before. The two events nearly happened one after the other, and it took him this much time to link them before.

    If it weren''t for the fact that an elder was currently coming to tutor him, he would have logged out directly to check the technique''s contents as it might help him learn more about Little Gold, but he stopped himself as he had to focus on the priorities at hand. Although he was excited about learning more about Little Gold as it had been a big mystery for him, he wasn''t sure if he could comprehend the manual''s contents yet.

    Thus he decided to contain his excitement and continued waiting for the elders'' arrival as the opportunity couldn''t be pushed to a later date.

    An hour passed where Fell stayed in the same position on the ground. He regulated his breathing and calmed his heart and mind as he knew that the tutoring from the elder was a golden opportunity that shouldn''t be wasted. If he happened to lose track of whatever he was going to be taught, then he would regret for the rest of his life, and unfortunately, there was no pill that dealt with regret.

    Thus he used the free time to refine his mind, and before long, he lost track of his surroundings due to retracting all of his senses inwardly.

    When he reopened his eyes, he found a giant pair of green eyes gaze at him with clear interest, his sight focused after a split second, and he saw the man in front of him. The man was tall and sprouted a head filled with silvery hair, long and fine, that dropped on broad shoulders that seemed to capable of shouldering the world. His clothing was odd and revealed several parts of his body, and it wasn''t any type of physique but one that released a beastly yet refined aura.

    The moment he saw the man, he was sure that his appearance was his own and wasn''t a creation of the game''s system. It was an odd sensation that couldn''t be brushed by rational thought and was closer to an answer given by Fell''s instinct.

    Fell got up from his cross-legged position on the red soil and bowed toward the green eyed man. The moment he raised his torso from the polite bow, he noticed that his surroundings had changed completely as he now stood on top of a rock. The ground''s surface was rough and rugged, and a grey and dim colored line showed the sediment contained in the bare environment.

    As he was checking his surroundings, he raised his head only to be shaken by the view that entered his eyes. Numerous stars entered his sight, and a gigantic ball of flame took away most of his attention. His heart skipped a beat in his chest, and his mouth opened from the surprising view; the giant piece of rock they were standing on was piercing through space as it traveled through the void.

    "Incredible¡­", he exclaimed as he forgot about the nearby elder. He turned around as he lost himself in the cosmic scenery, and only after a minute passed that he managed to regain his calm and stopped his deed.

 Chapter 162 Accepting Ones Fate Part Four

    He turned towards the elder with reddened cheeks that showed his inner shame. Due to the surprise caused by the change in the nearby environment, he lost his focus and forgot about the elder in front of him.

    Thankfully the man didn''t take it at heart and brushed the matter away with a movement of his limb. He then coughed and exclaimed with a calm yet powerful voice.

    "My name Ishvar, and I''m one of the elders that help in the training of players with potential.", he stopped for a second before continuing, "Before coming here I''ve watched a few of your fights, but it wasn''t enough for me to gauge your level."

    "If I remember correctly, your weapon of predilection is the sword but your also quite talented when it comes to barehanded martial technique, right?"

    Fell nodded silently as he knew that the elder was currently making a point.

    "I''m going to need you to show me a few of your moves. The fundamental ones are enough, I want to check if your fundamentals lack something.", he immediately explained his methodology.

    Fell swiftly acquiesced and executed himself. A sharp screech resounded from his sword as he unsheathed it from its scabbard, and began executing the basic stance of his Massin Sword Art. He followed the man''s instruction and didn''t attempt to execute his complex ''Moon Above'' or ''Sun Below'', and only showed him the basic stance of his sword art.

    Strokes and thrust were executed one after the other, their angles differed, and his sword encompassed the eight directions where he could step. Due to having face the endless battlefield during the trial by fire, his basic sword technique had evolved into being capable of responding to attacks from any angle.

    Although he felt somewhat pressured due to being watched by someone who could see through his weaknesses, as soon as he began executing his sword art, he lost himself in the joy of the sword path and forgot everything.

    Sometimes his strikes would be as soft as a quiet morning breeze, while other times, his sword would scream and turn into a vicious beast as it cut through the air. His sword hand-controlled his weapon with a fluidity that made it seem as if the weapon was part of his body, and he expressed himself through his sword art one cut at a time.

    His movements were untethered, and he followed through every single one of them. Not a single stance felt forced, and he moved from one to another with a water-like flow.

    Time passed quietly, and his body began moving more and more. From the very basic sword strike that used the body to generate momentum, he passed to sword arts that created momentum that moved the body. One opposite concept could birth the other, and Fell had been aware of this fact since his first martial practice.

    He could still remember with clarity how Anzar''s muscles moved. From the softest move was birthed an aggressive momentum that leveled the ground under his legs. And from a slow punch that gave the impression that it moved at a snail pace, a lighting fast kick would appear from an unpredictable angle.

    Ever since he has seen the way of Anzar''s Massin Martial Art, he had ingrained those principles down to his core and tried to incorporate them in every domain he studied. His sword arts were akin to a sponge that soaked up those concepts the most.

    After what seemed like dozens of minutes of practice, Fell stopped and looked at the silver-haired elder with eyes filled with expectation. Although he didn''t show him ''Moon Above'' and ''Sun Below'', he couldn''t help but feel that further revision to his foundations could already become a huge boost to his strength.

    A solidification of the first few stones that laid the foundation for a building would lead the become more lasting in time. And like a pyramid, those sword stances he showed to the elder were the stones for the pyramid of his sword path.

    The elder pondered for a long time before opening his lips. With a hand supporting his chin, he gazed at the nearby stars and fell in deep thoughts. Fell couldn''t help but try to wonder the abstruse concepts he was thinking about.

    "Where the hell did this kid come from?", inwardly, the elder was shocked, but he didn''t reveal anything about his inner turmoil. An amiable smile was on his face as he thought about the advice he could give to Fell. "If I don''t do my job correctly, I will get laughed at by the other and turn into a giant joke."

    He could already hear the jeer from his peers, "He''s not even capable of teaching the juniors¡­", as he faced a mental crisis that Fell was unaware about, he finally opened his lips. "Where the hell did this brat even come from?!"

    His mouth opened, and a cough was released from his throat, breaking the silence that had taken place after Fell finished his practice. With hands placed behind his back, he looked deeply into Fell''s eyes before speaking in a clear voice that didn''t sell his inner turmoil.

    "Your foundation is deep, and it seems like you have never lacked a single practice session."

    "I don''t see any apparent weakness in your sword art¡­", he explained before pausing. "Yet you will face many difficulties in your sword path due do a fact¡­ Your sword arts are all encompassing, and that alone makes them hard to get further growth."

    "Unfortunately, I am no sword cultivator, and I''m afraid that I''ll change your way if I help you too much.", the moment he began speaking his inner fear disappeared as he tried his utmost in helping the junior in front of him.

    "But I can do one thing for you, and that is in relation with the laws that govern the universe!", the moment he spoke about the laws, the green in his eyes intensified as his hair began moving without any wind.

 Chapter 163 Accepting Ones Fate Part Five

    Fell''s heart thumped the moment he sensed a strange change happen in their surroundings. He could feel the space nearby the elder bend and warp without him making any movement. He had been disappointed when the elder told him he couldn''t help him in his sword way, but the moment he heard him speak about the universal laws, his attention grew to a point where his eyes were fully locked on the elder.

    His senses extended to their fullest, but because he didn''t dare to anger the elder, he contained himself and only prayed at the outer layer of the elder''s surroundings.

    The elder noticed his act, and he couldn''t help but crack a grin when he saw the hungry expression on Fell''s face. He couldn''t help but feel like teaching him everything he knew but stopped himself as he knew that he would never have such an opportunity through battle league. He still promised himself that if someday they met in real life, he would help him if he was troubled.

    "The laws of the universe are vast and encompassing. The ancient named them with several names¡­ Dao, Akashic records, or even Science!", his voice boomed and ingrained itself deeply in Fell''s psyche.

    "There is no clear order in their superiority, and any law could be grown to a point where it would attain the top!", as soon as he heard the truth. Fell''s ears ringed, and he felt as if he was going to fall on the ground, but he managed to regain his balance. He was aware that laws could grow, but he hadn''t been aware that every single path could lead to the top.

    "From understanding the laws of growth through a plant that passes through the four seasons. And comprehending it to the utmost, under the right circumstances, that law could become the law of life!"

    "From understanding a droplet of water, and expending your knowledge from that point. You might attain the same law of life!"

    "Those are the laws of the universe! Concepts that had been birthed by this universe and that are at our own disposition to discover and expand beyond their own singular path!"

    Fell imagined the view he was being told, and couldn''t help but begin thinking about the direction his law could take.

    "During my long life, I''ve heard and seen many things. Fire that didn''t burn, but on the contrary gave life.", he began explaining the many peculiarities. He began sharing his vast experience to open Fell''s eyes in front of the near infinite range of possibilities. Concepts that humans and other life forms had a hard time to imagine.

    "Even the three main paths are in the end, different facets of the same coins. Spatial energy appears when space expands, mental energy appears when the will expands further through practice and epiphanies. The body path is the same, except that with every expansion in strength, there will be a compression to maintain the same physique!"

    "This principle can also be expressed through several other cultivation paths that exist in the vast universe. Remember, child, in this world nothing is set in place and everything is possible!", the moment he finished speaking, he looked one last time at Fell before lifting his index finger.

    A dot of light oozed out of his finger; Fell was surprised by what he saw as the object was strange beyond anything he had seen in his life. It reflected light and created a soft light that radiated through the surrounding. It gave off the impression that it was volatile and that a single wisp of air could cause it to disperse. Yet, at the same time was similar to a water droplet, in the sense that it had an intrinsic surface tension that kept everything to be pulled in a spherical shape.

    The dot of light left the index finger of the elder and hovered quietly toward Fell while seeming as if it could disappear at any moment.

    "This is a gift for you. Consider it as karma between us.", the moment he finished, the green light in his eyes died down and disappeared as fast as it appeared. He breathed out and felt like he had done a good job with the youth in front of him. He might not have taught him a technique that would cause direct growth in his strength, but he was sure that expanding his field of view would cause a better effect in the long run.

    In the end, there is no better teacher than nature. And being aware that everything could be a possibility was a lesson that he would have yearned to be thought when he was his age. He shoved his palm forward, and the droplet of light touched Fell''s eyebrow and produced a blinding green light. Fell''s avatar''s skin was hydrated as it soaked on the strange substance, then it disappeared with one last ray of light.

    "I don''t know if we will ever meet again in the future. But I hope you will keep your mind opened to the vast field of possibilities that exist in our world.", with one last sentence, a windy air current appeared and he disappeared as his body turned a ray of green droplets.

    Fell stood in place for a few seconds, before noticing that his body was being transported to another place in the game. He blinked and noticed the familiar fighting platform he had seen many times.

    Although every single mountain was nearly identical one to another, the fact that his feet had foiled those tiles for many hours made him immediately recognize the place as his own. He looked around and couldn''t help but let a sigh escape from his lips.

    With one last look at the vast fighting platform, he logged out and disappeared from the numerous valleys of . The exchange he had with the elder had opened his eyes, and a strange yearning for adventure began sprouting in his heart.

 Chapter 164 Back to Reality Part One

    The next moment he opened his eyes, he found himself staring at the luxurious ceiling of his chamber in New Casablanca''s battle center. An odd sense of reality hit his mind as he couldn''t help but touch his face to confirm that he was back in his body.

    "The differences are minute, but they exist¡­", he mumbled as he now noticed the subtle differences between the game and reality.

    He applied some strength on his waist and got up from the cerebral link without difficulty. Although he had been logged on for nearly a week, his body was strong enough to avoid any potential side effects from the lack of exercise. His joints popped as his blood began circulating faster in his veins, and he began executing mild and soft moves of the Massin martial art.

    He circulated some energy in his meridians and felt the walls of his meridian get flooded with waves of energy that tumbled through his body. The process didn''t take long as he stopped after a revolution. But the warming of his body was accelerated as his muscles and limb were gorged with blood and energy.

    After a minute or two, he stopped his practice and went to the bathroom as he felt like taking a shower before leaving his room. The feeling of hot water running through his skin made him feel rejuvenated, and he finished cleaning himself shortly after enjoying the steamy liquid.

    He stopped for a second in front of the mirror and looked at himself for a second. "What a pleasure to be back in my body.", he blurted whit a grin cracking on his lips.

    "Now that I think about it, The avatar''s base strength is quite inferior when compared to my current physique.", he thought while his hand moved toward the spot between his eyebrows. The conversation with the elder resurfaced in his mind, and his movement stopped for a split second before resuming.

    A flash of light appeared for an instant before Soldier''s Fortune appeared in the middle of his grasp. He traced through the steel with his other hand, and couldn''t help but feel happy with his weapon at hand. He had fought for hours in battle league, but had always felt that something was lacking when he thought about those times. And that was his beloved weapon which had been with him since his first fights.

    He put his sword to the side and donned a martial attire that was in his spatial pocket. When he finished, he couldn''t help but grab his sword and execute a few strokes with it.

    His movements were mild, and he did his utmost in exerting too much strength as he didn''t want to damage the furniture in the room. The air parted in front of his weapon''s path, and magnificent curves appeared in the air whenever his sword passed.

    He played around for a little bit, his childish antics resurfaced, and he lost himself dancing with his sword. He only stopped when he nearly cut a table in half, he managed to stop his movement but destroyed a nearby curtain. With an ashamed laugh, he sheathed his sword in its scabbard and secured it in his waist.

    "I''m not putting you back there, don''t worry!", he exclaimed out loud as he meant that Soldier''s Fortune would stay close to him.

    During his fight against the virtual immortal, he had thought about his link with his weapon and had felt that always storing Soldier''s Fortune in his spatial pocket was too sad. The specks of memory he had seen had taught him that a weapon should always be with his master, in life and in death.

    After readying himself, he stepped towards the door with determined steps and only stopped as he passed near a mirror. He noticed that his hair had grown longer since his departure from the Core; months upon months had passed, and only now did he notice it. He attached his hair in a bun, and couldn''t help but sigh as he noticed that time truly passed differently for a cultivator.

    Finally, the emerald colored door opened and was closed shortly after him. Footsteps resounded through the quiet hallway, and Fell left the floor where the top ranker of the game resided without ever meeting them.

    Shortly after that, he departed from the battle center with calm steps. A few individuals couldn''t help but look at him as they remembered the event that happened in the reception hall; their gaze stopped at the sword hanging by his waist, and only they knew what they thought about it.

    A black haired youth appeared in the street of New Casablanca. It was currently day time, and the streets of the main district were filled with cars and citizens. Saying that a black haired youth with a martial attire didn''t draw any attention would be a lie, but most of the citizens only thought that he was a noble with weird antics.

    With the cultivation era growing in popularity, it wasn''t weird to meet strange individuals who showed their weapons in clear daylight. It was only that most of them had backing that made the police not dare stop them.

    Thankfully for Fell, his travel to his apartment went without any hindrance, and only a few suspicious gazes were thrown towards him. Strangely, he took pleasure in those gazes and adjusted his sword for the majority to notice.

    A childish behavior that was ingrained in Fell''s psyche and made him feel like boasting a little bit.

    He stepped through his apartment''s step door with excitement as it had been a long time he saw Wind. But what greeted him was a dusty home that hadn''t been occupied for days. He toured through his apartment for a minute as he looked for clues but didn''t find anything that explained where Wind was.

    Little did he know that Wind had gotten hooked with Battle League, and ever since his first session, he was addicted. His routine changed drastically, and he never stepped inside of the apartment again.

 Chapter 165 Back To Reality Part Two

    Wind''s life only revolved around the golden factory and the battle centers. Thankfully Fell had gifted him with ample monetary resources that made him capable of living through this lifestyle.

    Fell was a little bit disappointed, but he knew that he would meet the young official at some point. He decided that leaving his home in this state was too disrespectful, and began cleaning the house like a maniac. It had only been a few days, and it didn''t take him more than a dozen minutes before clearing every speck of dust in the house.

    He rewarded himself with a gargantuan meal and emptied most of the fridge in one go before sitting in a random stop in the living room. His eyes closed as he regulated his breathing to turn the content of his stomach into nutrients for his body. And before long, he understood that his body was nearly starving.

    Although he didn''t feel any discomfort due to not eating for days, his body on the contrary screamed the moment nutrients entered it, and it began working at a tremendous rate to digest everything. Then he circled his energy around his meridian. After several rotation, he noticed that he didn''t lose much from not practicing due to his time spent inside of battle league.

    "Little Gold?", he exclaimed as his mind prayed open the gate of his dantian. The numerous clouds and seas of energy that had gathered in it appeared in his mind. He noticed a golden colored snake bath in the liquid, but the moment it noticed that someone was looking at him, it hid itself in the milky white clouds.

    He couldn''t help but have his heart ache a little bit when he saw Little Gold''s reaction. He sighed, and his inner turmoil could be seen through his face. He was aware that he hadn''t been exactly soft with the golden parasite, but now that time had passed, Fell regretted his action in the middle of his last breakthrough as he thought he might have gone a bit too far.

    His lack of preparation and experience when dealing with existence similar to Little Gold had caused him some trouble. Thankfully, he could still feel the link that connected their lives, and only when he verified it that he stopped over-thinking.

    "The golden manual!?", he couldn''t help but exclaim as he remembered the manual that was in Vicious Zhang''s possession. All the events that happened in battle league and his discussion with the elder caused him to nearly forget about it.

    He sent his will tumbling in his spatial pocket. And there he noticed it, quietly laying between stacks of metallic plates he had taken during his travel to the factories. His hand flashed in front of his eyebrow, and a golden colored manual appeared in his hand with a soft fluctuation in space.

    He wiped the dust out of it and tried reading the golden colored characters in it, but it was to no avail as he couldn''t understand the language it was written in. He opened the manual and noticed that the materials the page was made of were different from the usual paper that existed on Earth.

    It was harder and didn''t bend well; it wasn''t truly correct to call it paper as it was similar to the wooden plate in nature. It was only because it was thin that he assumed it was paper.

    After passing through the dozens of sheets the manual contained, he couldn''t help but look in front of him with a depressed gaze, "I can''t understand it¡­". After a few seconds passed where he mindlessly stared at the incomprehensible scripture of the manual, it hit his mind with an unprecedented clarity.

    "The AI! It might translate the manual''s content for me.", he exclaimed before swiftly ordering the AI to see if it could solve his hurdle.

    "My database is too lacking. It will take me¡­", sounds of computation popped in his head before the AI revealed the result. "Three hundred years are needed to fully translate the manual!", his heart skipped a beat in his chest as he heard the absurd information.

    "Would I even need the manual in three hundred years?", he thought with a self-mocking grin on his lips. "I can''t wait that long¡­"

    The AI robotic voice appeared again in his mind and asked confirmation if it should start the translation.

    "Do I begin the execution of the translation?"

    But he didn''t respond as he fell in deep thought. After a minute of Fell losing himself in his thoughts, he mindlessly mumbled the AI''s first sentence. "Database is too lacking¡­ Database!", he jumped from his sitting position before asking the AI again.

    "If we fill your database with sufficient information, do you think the translation time will be shortened?"

    "Yes! With enough information, I''m confident that I can translate it in an instant.", it paused for a second before continuing. "But that means that my database needs to be filled with the full language this manual is written in."

    Fell''s shoulder dropped low when he heard the rectification. But he moved his head left and right, and cleared his negative thought as he was still satisfied with shortening the time.

    "I shouldn''t have taken his life before asking him¡­", he thought about Vicious Zhang and slightly regretted his past actions. "Well¡­ I''ve still got a lot to learn!", he managed to clear his train of thoughts and departed from his apartment with a healthy mental state.

    Fell walked toward the second place he needed to go. He had connected his AI with the golden factory to record Wind''s data and had thought about retrieving it to check if there was any progress with his research of Blood Essence. But he also had another goal for going there, and that was to see if the comprehension rooms had record about the language the manual was written in.

    "I might meet that bastard there.", he thought as a smile appeared on his lips.

 Chapter 166 Back To Reality Part Three

    Not long after taking the decision of going to Golden Factory, he left his apartment with unhurried footsteps and walked through the main district. The travel didn''t take him more than twenty minutes as he had been used to doing it every day. He couldn''t help but sigh when he gazed at the city''s constructions.

    The main district was supposed to be his first stop in his journey through the world, but he had already stayed there for too long. And his talk with battle league''s elder had awakened his thirst for adventure. Those spotless walls that had seemed incredibly refreshing the first time he saw them, now seemed as bleak as the Core''s narrow streets.

    "But I can''t just leave like this¡­", he thought as he gazed at one of the many skyscrapers in the city. "Not even talking about wind, but my karma here hadn''t been finished and I feel like the four noble families are up to something with their banquets¡­", it was a feeling he hadn''t been able to brush ever since he had disrespected the noble families'' sovereignty in the city.

    "Well, I''ll pay them a visit if they don''t send that invitation.", he mumbled as he thought about the promised banquet. "I still didn''t eat much of their culinary specialties¡­", his stomach gurgled as he thought about food.

    Before long, he found himself in front of Golden Factory''s large building, and he stepped inside as the two magnetic doors opened in front of him. He greeted the reception, and the quiet girl nodded toward him before looking a second time in his direction. Then her head dropped, and a slight red hue appeared on her cheeks.

    Fell appeared on the floor he had rented, his eyes gazed left and right, and he was surprised to notice that the damage that had been dealt during his breakthrough was mended. He didn''t find any sign of Wind in the large hallway, and assumed he was in one of the three rooms, focused on his physical training.

    He entered the record room and retrieved the AI''s data that were related to Wind''s training and blood essence. He then gazed at the screens on the wall and noticed a youth in the middle of his training in one of them. His entire body was filled with sweat, and his hands were barbells that were used to execute isometric exercises.

    Just from the camera''s feedback, Fell couldn''t help but notice Wind''s progress in his training. Although he was still far from being a body cultivator, his body had grown by leaps and bounds and couldn''t be considered normal at all. His breathing was long and powerful; it was synchronized with the movement he executed with perfection, and the focus in his eyes showed that he had already gotten used to this kind of lifestyle.

    "AI, what are the changes that happened with his blood essence?", he exclaimed loudly as his gaze didn''t leave Wind''s figure.

    "The last record of his blood essence is as shown here.", His left eye''s pupil shined softly with a purple hue before a graphic appeared in front of him.

    Before his seclusion in battle league, Wind''s blood essence had been healthy when compared to the norm in the human species but its potency and vibrancy was a far fetch from a cultivator''s blood essence.

    "Show me the graphic with the current analysis of his blood essence.", another graphic appeared right to the already existing one.

    Fell stopped looking at the screen and gazed at the graphics in front of him with intense focus in his eyes.

    "Hmm¡­ Just like I feared.", he mumbled. "The amount of training a mortal need to execute for his blood essence to enter the threshold of immortality is beyond absurd¡­"

    "Physical training alone would only lead to a change in quantity while facing near-death experience raise the quality of one''s blood essence by a slight margin.", he pondered loudly while gazing at the numerous information in front of him. "For a mortal''s blood essence to attain the realm of a cultivator¡­ One would need dozens, if not hundreds, of life and death experience."

    "Well this looks like it will be the sole conclusion of my research¡­", he thought before shutting down the two graphics. "One either need to gamble with his life in the battlefield, or acquire enough resource to speed up the progress¡­", then a hypothesis appeared in his mind for a split second. "Unless one was gifted enough genetically, then the process of building up the quality of your blood essence through fighting would take decades¡­"

    He sighed before ordering the AI to analyze further everything he had thought about. In the end, even if he was a cultivator with augmented mental capacities, he was still a native to the Core and hadn''t been educated in those fields of research.

    "Well, I guess it''s time to reward his dedication!", he exclaimed while leaving the room with unhurried steps.

    The next moment, he was in front of the strength door and turned the door handle without any notice from Wind. He stood in the side and watched as Wind executed one movement after another before waiting a precise amount of time to recover. He saw Wind''s muscles expand, and could sense that they were screaming from pain every time he moved the barbells. His wait didn''t take long as Wind had been training since the morning, and when Fell had come, he was already nearly finished with his strength course.

    Wind dropped the barbells on the ground, producing a deep thud, and shook his twitching hands to wash away the empty sensation that had accumulated in them. He breathed one last lengthy breath before wiping the sweat that had accumulated on his face. Only then did he notice that there was another breath in the room. He swiftly turned around with a menacing gaze on his face, but it disappeared and was replaced with surprise.

    "Brother Fell!?", he screamed on top of his lung as a surprised smile was drawn on his youthful face.

 Chapter 167 Back To Reality Part Four

    Laughter resounded through the strength room as the two friends greeted each other with harsh slaps on the back. They laughed and joked for a few moments before talking about their past weeks.

    Fell got to learn that Wind hadn''t been that far away from him, due to his advice he had also gone to the battle center and had begun his journey in battle league. His eyes glowed as he counted a few of his fight to Fell, and he couldn''t help but sigh when he gazed at Fell''s weapon.

    "Looks like you''ve grown quite a bit.", exclaimed Fell as he saw his brother''s reaction.

    His hand moved toward his spatial pocket, and he took out a long metal pole that he had stored there during his stay in Gladiator''s Heaven. Wind''s eyes glowed when he looked at the weapon, and he couldn''t help but feel like taking the weapon from Fell''s hand. But he stopped himself, and only looked at Fell with puppy eyes that made the latter quite uncomfortable.

    Fell threw the pole towards Wind, and exclaimed while washing the discomfort away with a shudder.

    "Stop looking at me like that, you know that you give people the creeps?", he exclaimed while drawing his weapon. "Show me what you''ve learned in the game!".

    Wind closely looked at Fell before hissing a breath of cold air through his throat. His finger coiled around the metallic pole, and the steel''s coldness calmed his nerves. The amount of respect he owed Fell had always made it difficult for him to muster any battle intent, and that was without even considering the level of difference between both opponents.

    Wind was only a mid-level first step soul cultivator, and Fell was nearly at the peak of all three systems making the latter superior to him in every way. But this time, he wanted to show him his own worth and didn''t hesitate for more than half a second before taking a step toward Fell. He was ready to prove that he didn''t slack during the previous weeks; this was his moment to shine.

    His elbow moved towards his back, and his spine curved as he accumulated bodily strength in his pole. A second later, his pole was sent tumbling toward Fell with a speed that wasn''t negligible to a mortal''s body.

    Fell easily swatted the weapon to the side with the flat of his sword. Wind managed to regain his stability by shifting his weight toward the direction Fell countered his weapon, and he added a rotation to condense his momentum in a deadly blow. The young cultivator from the Core moved an inch away and dodged the pole by a thin margin making it look like he had completely seen through Wind''s attack.

    "Be serious! If you only use your bodily strength, then this is only a loss for you!", Fell exclaimed in a loud voice that awakened Wind.

    The young official shivered for a second before his pupil turned black like an abyss. His soul cultivation erupted like a volcano, and his ability to persuade his own psyche was applied to him.

    An unearthly bloodlust escaped from Wind''s body. The vicious aura went past Wind and extended all over the strength room as it encompassed Fell in it. The latter couldn''t help but feel his muscles tingle slightly as the murderous intent excited his battle intent, he breathed out in an instant, and an arrow formed of air broke through Wind''s malicious aura before hitting him straight in the chest.

    Wind took a step back in haste. He felt as if a hammer had been thrown at his chest, and he couldn''t help but rub the place where the windy arrow made contact in the hope of dissipating the pain.

    "This kind of aura is helpful against weaklings, but it is too fake to shake off any battle heartened opponent¡­", he said matter of fact before shutting his eyelid. "This is¡­ Murderous aura!", his pore opened, and his sword intent mixed with a savage, murderous intent escaped from his body.

    Wind''s eyes opened widely as every particle that made his body shivered when it made contact with Fell''s deadly aura. He couldn''t help but feel his very soul get disorientated from it, and he couldn''t help but feel nauseous and nearly dropped on his knee.

    "Your murderous aura isn''t only fake due to you not having killed anyone. But it''s also because it lacked a major component to it¡­", he paused for a second and kindled his emotions to strengthen the murderous aura he was releasing.

    At that moment, a change appeared in the killing intent he was releasing. Fell''s anger toward life, his hate towards destiny that had thrown him in the baby cemetery was added to his murderous aura.

    A vicious sharpness assaulted Wind''s soul, and his leg finally grew soft before his body hit the ground. Fell absorbed back his aura and closed his pores before opening his eyes to see Wind''s state. The poor youth was shaking continuously while gazing at Fell with fearful eyes, only after a minute passed that he managed to calm down.

    "You are talented with the domain of the will. I don''t think it will take you too much time to acquire your own intent, take this.", as he exclaimed, he threw a fist sized gem towards Wind. It was spotless, and a grey color could be seen in the center of the glass like material.

    "This is a cultivation method for the soul system, study it well, and you will accomplish great deeds in your life.", he then stopped for a second before looking at Wind. "I''m going to depart from the city soon¡­ You can take what I have gained here when I''ll be gone, and I''m sure the battle center of the city will take great care of you."

    "The world is vaster than I thought, and I don''t think my body can stay longer in this place without decaying from boredom."

 Chapter 168 Back To Reality Part Five

    Wind''s mind was sent tumbling from the news, and he couldn''t help but drop his head low as he thought about his brother''s departure. He hesitated for a second before opening his lips; he hesitantly spoke in a tone filled with doubt.

    "Take me with you!", only for a short answer to respond to him. "No."

    A chilling answer that poured cold water on his senses, and he couldn''t help but clench his fist tighter when he heard it. He raised his head and saw a smiling face directed toward him, and he couldn''t help but feel even more remorseful for not having trained more.

    "Don''t think like that. You have to go your own, simply like I will go on my own¡­", Fell sighed before resuming. "I''m not going yet, but I''ve just wanted to tell you beforehand."

    "Come! Let''s get some liquor while we talk.", a bottle appeared in his hand before lifting it high toward the ceiling. Fell chugged a mouthful of spicy wine down his throat before passing the bottle to his brother, who did the same.

    "There exist a lot of opportunities in battle league; use them to your advantage and you might make the difference that exists between our power levels disappear overnight!" He cheered his brother and advised him on the road he could take when he would depart the city.

    "No, I think I also yearn for adventures¡­", he then looked at Fell and exclaimed with a confident tone in his voice. "I will go to space, and travel through the vast universe!"

    "We have both been earth-bound ever since we came to life, and I''ll be the first one to change that!", he blurted while swallowing a few mouthfuls of the alcohol in his hand.

    A burst of laughter resounded through the strength room, and Fell could be seen grabbing his sides while laughing on top of his lungs. "Well said!", he added before lifting his thumbs as a sign of encouragement.

    Then, the two youths talked about their dreams while falling for the alcohol''s intoxicating mood. They spent the rest of the day there and only departed after talking about everything that passed through their drunken minds. When they left the strength room, it was with stuttering steps that showed the abnormal degree of intoxication they have attained. In the corner of the room, dozens of empty bottles laid there, a clear sign of their drunken promises.

    A little bit later, in the middle of the near-empty street of the main district. A pair of muddled footsteps could be heard, followed by random fits of laughter and giggling. Obviously, the noise was caused by the drunken Wind and Fell, who didn''t seem to care about the strange gazes that were thrown at them.

    Thankfully, they made it to Fell''s apartment without meeting any difficulty in the road, as it could be expected for them to attract trouble. Drunk and tired, they both swiftly went to their room, greeted by sleep''s tender grasp. Due to having drunk an obnoxious amount of wine that could suffice in taking down an ogre, they slept through the night and extended their rest till the afternoon.

    Fell didn''t have the opportunity to rest his worn-out senses for days, and although his body didn''t move for weeks during his stay in the battle center. His mind, on the contrary, was constantly pushed to the edges especially due to chaining the trial by fire and his last two fights. Those three events had washed away his stamina to the last drop.

    Barf- The sound of someone emptying the contents of their stomach awoke Fell from his beauty sleep. With difficulty, his eyes opened groggily as he stumbled out of bed. Noticing that his system still contained alcohol from last night; he rotated the energy in his meridian with slight trouble and managed to expel the toxins from his body.

    Pshht! The young cultivator''s pores opened up, and a dense and transparent gas was expelled from them. After a few seconds of energy refining, he managed to expel most of the alcohol that hadn''t been refined by his liver and found back the mental clarity he had lost.

    During this time, he could still hear Wind throw up his bowels in the bathroom. A smirk appeared on his lips as flashes of last night resurfaced now that he was sober. "It was quite fun.", a slightly broken tone escaped from his sore throat followed by a strong cough that gave the impression he was going to spit up part of his lungs.

    Thankfully none of that happened, and after coughing twice, he found a nearby bottle of water; the cold liquid ran through his throat. After hydrating his sore throat, he advanced through his apartment and walked toward the bathroom where the sounds of vomiting came from. The poor Wind seemed to have woken up in a worse state than Fell, due to him not being capable of expelling the alcohol from his pores.

    The young official found himself obliged to expel it the normal way. Two fingers down the throat did the job, and a torrent of alcohol mixture escaped from his throat down to the sewer. But contrary to what he expected, he didn''t vomit a little bit but had summoned a waterfall of alcohol waste.

    "Seems like you''re doing fine!", joked Fell with his back leaning against the bathroom''s white door. His arms were crossed, and Wind couldn''t help but find the look in his eyes beyond annoying. Thankfully, it wasn''t in his capacity to look anywhere for more than a second beside the bowl in front of him.

    "Well, I''ll go see if I can prepare some food!", the black haired Fell exclaimed while leaving the bathroom.

    A ghostly wail escaped from the bathroom, "Coffee... Make some coffee, brother Fell.."

    His steps took him to the kitchen, and he disappointedly retraced back his steps as he remembered he had emptied the fridge the day before meeting Wind. He grabbed a jacket, and without further thought, advanced toward the door that led out of his apartment.

 Chapter 169 Invitation Part One

    The black haired youth advanced with unhurried steps towards the wooden door. It was only when he was a few steps from it that he noticed a shining object laid on the floor. The object was rectangular in shape and reflected the soft light that entered from the windows ¡ª a golden colored card to be more precise.

    Fell approached the card with curiosity apparent on his youthful face. He crouched slightly and grabbed the card; a cold chill traversed his hand when he made contact with the metallic object. Raising it to his face, he noticed white colored letter engraved in it.

    "Invitation to the banquet of the Noble Families.", he read out loud as a flash of memory linked the card with a past event. With a twist of his wrist, he turned the card, and a name was written on it. Fell.

    Finally, he understood that the noble families had finished prepared the so called banquet for him. "I guess I''ll go there to collect my deeds¡­", he thought as he noticed that the golden card wasn''t accompanied by any other cards.

    "Did those bastards forget that they owe me money?" he exclaimed through his gritted teeth. In the background, Wind was oblivious to the new discovery and was still vomiting bits of his innards.

    Fell''s face turned cold after his anger died down, "They can''t possibly forget to deliver the money, and still deliver the invitation.". Shortly after that, he left the apartment with hastened steps and departed for the streets of the city. It was already the afternoon, and the invitation card for the banquet was for tonight. If he didn''t want to go there alone, he needed to get Wind to a decent state, and that would start with a hearty breakfast.

    Nothing unusual happened in his short journey, and he managed to fill his spatial pocket with plenty of ingredients and beverages. It was only when he was on the road back to his apartment that a strange event happened. The event didn''t lead to any fight nor even a loud talk, but the stranger that Fell met in the road had sent him chills down to his very spine.

    The stranger was wearing a hooded vest, and he had been walking toward the opposite direction of Fell. The young cultivator from the Core hadn''t noticed him till they were a few steps apart. At first, he had thought that the man was sick as the hood was unusual during the day, especially a day like this one where the temperature was higher than average.

    But he hadn''t thought much about it, and from afar, his face looked pale beyond any healthy figure he had seen. His paleness was similar to the spotless white that was reflected from the metallic construct of the main district. It was only when they passed close to each other that he noticed that the man was wearing a mask; the mask alone didn''t cause any specific thoughts in Fell''s mind, he had found it strange, but that was it.

    The problem was with the hooded figure''s eyes, eyes that shouldn''t be in the face of a living being, eyes that didn''t reflect any speck of a soul. When he had seen them, his hand nearly drew Soldier''s Fortune from its metallic sheet. The stranger seemed to notice Fell''s reaction, but except a small gaze, he continued advancing through the streets.

    "Who am I to judge him?", smirked Fell as he continued past his track. His right hand was tightly clenched around the smooth, cold, black scabbard. And it was only after turning across another street that he managed to hiss a breath of cold air.

    "I should speed up, Wind''s stomach is probably in the midst of consuming itself!", he thought before doubling his speed.

    He traversed the rest of the journey in a few minutes and was back in his comfortable apartment. The strange encounter had already been thrown in the back of his mind. When he entered through the wooden door, he heard the bathroom''s door close with a soft thud and found a stuttering Wind walk toward him with a pale constitution.

    "Drink some water brother", exclaimed Fell when he saw Wind''s dried up lips. "Come to the kitchen; I''ve gotten a few delicacies from the street."

    Fell entered the kitchen, and with several swipes of his hands, unloaded his spatial pocket on the table. Dozens of ingredients appeared on the table; beef, salmon and a decent amount of vegetables and condiments to accompany them. On the side were two cups of dark liquid, steaming with hot fumes.

    "Grab yourself a coffee while I prepare breakfast.", Wind didn''t wait for his brother''s proposal as he had already nearly thrown himself on the steamy cup of coffee.

    Fell didn''t make his brother wait much and began preparing their meal; the beef and salmon were cut in small sized cubes, added to them were several spices and herbs before they were put to the sides. The godly amount of vegetables was chopped in a minute in small bits and were swiftly thrown in a brown pot, filled with clear water.

    Before long, the kitchen was filled with vapor coming from the pot. The soft aroma swiftly filled the kitchen, before extending through Fell''s apartment, causing the poor Wind to nearly drool the little amount of liquid his body still had. After putting the nutritious soup cook on the side, he approached the cubes of beef and salmon and decided to smoke the salmon first before taking care of the beef.

    -

    Swooooch- Fell activated the air cleaner due to the smog that had appeared in his apartment. And when he was done, the cloudiness in the kitchen disappeared in a few seconds, revealing dozens of dishes on the table.

    "Dig in little drunkard!", Fell jokingly exclaimed as he saw that Wind couldn''t contain himself anymore. After that, silence took over his apartment; and the only sound that resonated in the kitchen were the slurping and munching noise that made it seems as though a whole courtyard of soldiers were taking down a buffet.

 Chapter 170 Invitation Part Two

    What followed was a loud battle against the dishes of the table. The food was butchered with utmost savagery, and the sounds only stopped after dozens of minutes passed with a loud burp, that closed the dance. Wind had regained his colors, and the young official could be seen picking bits of cooked flesh from between his teeth while sighing as if he had fought a battle that edged between life and death.

    "F..k!", he cursed while patting the bulge in his stomach. He swiped the layer of grease that had accumulated near his oiled lips and grabbed a cup filled with beer; before sending it to tumble down his throat.

    "Bro, you should open a restaurant. For real, you''ve got yourself quite a decent path in case you are in need of money!", Wind exclaimed as his bullshit was revived with his now healthy constitution.

    "If all my customers end up like you. Eating to their fill, and paying nothing, I''ll probably end up bankrupt before finishing the first month of service.", Fell responded while rolling his eyes.

    "By the way, talking about food, you remember the four noble families?"

    "Those bastards you were humiliating when we first met?", responded Wind between two sips.

    "Yeah, well tonight they''ve invited us for a banquet. Better digest what you ate quickly because I''m sure that they''ll have loads of tasty food to eat."

    "Hmm¡­", grunted Wind while closing his eyes. "Tasty food¡­", he mumbled before gulping another sip of the fresh beverage in front of him.

    Before long, Fell got up from his chair and slapped Wind to do the same. The kitchen was swiftly cleaned, and in a few minutes, both youths were ready to get out.

    "Did you check the crystal''s content?", asked Fell while wiping his hand with a nearby towel.

    "Not yet, I was planning on doing it this morning, but I didn''t wake up in the best condition.", he responded with a self deprecating grin. "I think I''ll go take a look at it now; it might help me burn some calories.", he added before leaving for his room.

    After sitting alone in the living room for a few minute, Fell''s eyes opened widely, and a slap was snapped at his forehead, "I completely forgot the translation of the manual?!", he exclaimed while hearing a deafening roar escape from Wind''s room.

    "You''ll get used to it¡­", he mumbled while thinking about the pain that came with information transfer. Wind was currently in the midst of receiving the knowledge from the cultivation crystal; his muscles screamed as his body convulsed, and veins had popped all over his body as he grunted between his clenched teeth.

    "Good luck with the pain.", cheered Fell in a loud voice that was probably heard by Wind. He then left the apartment again and departed for Golden Factory''s building with hastened steps as the afternoon was nearly coming to its end.

    A few minutes after his departure, he arrived in front of the large building and barged through the reception hall before entering the elevator. He arrived in the floor he rented after a short ascension, and speedily entered in the comprehension room. There, he found a large screen and rows of books that were put on shelves.

    He fumbled through them in a hurry, and only found knowledge related to martial arts and exercise concepts. He approached the screen and began fiddling through its content with his hand and soon enough found what he was looking for.

    "AI, download everything that can be used from here.", he ordered before sitting on the floor. "How long will it take you?", he asked as he didn''t want to sit here for the rest of the day.

    "10:25 minutes are needed to completely copy this knowledge into my database, compressing before the transfer might accelerate the process."

    "Do it.", he mumbled before closing his eyes. He regulated his breathing and soon fell in a slight meditative state where his energy began cycling through his meridians. His energy pathways were flooded with dense, nearly liquid energy that caused it to spread all over his body through his meridians.

    The density of his energy had grown to the point where he only needed to start refining bits of energy for his body to do the rest. He used his freed focus to sharpen his will, and through it, his soul turned into a sword that he began grinding. Sadly, he still didn''t find a way to train his body at the same time as the two other systems. But he knew that the time would give him an answer to this specific problem.

    He was already content in being capable of cultivating his energy and soul at the same time; as usually, one needed to focus entirely on one domain to acquire progress. As he dabbled in training, he was awakened by an acute beep from his assist AI, and opened his eyes from the short meditation.

    A sharp glint escaped from his pupils and traveled a few inches out of his eyes before disappearing. He put some strength in his hand and lightly slapped the ground to propel himself upward. "Everything is finished?"

    "Yes."

    His hand began massaging his shoulders as he thought about the golden colored manual. After a few seconds, he asked another question, "Calculate how long would it take for the manual''s translation."

    Not long after his answer, a series of electronic beeps resounded in his mind, and a robotic voice echoed shortly after that.

    "Due to my database being filled with sufficient knowledge, I can assure master that the manual will be translated in: 7 months, 4 days, and 11:22 hours!"

    "Now that''s better than the hundreds of years!", he exclaimed with a grin on his lips. He slapped his tight as his eyes glinted from the good news, and ordered the AI to begin the procedure.

    "Begin!", with that last word, he closed the comprehension room behind him, and left the Golden Factory with satisfaction clearly drawn on his face.

 Chapter 171 Invitation Part Three

    Waiting a few months to get his hand on the manual wasn''t that troublesome for Fell. When he became a cultivator, he came to learn that time passed differently for his kind. A few months for him were akin to weeks for mortals, and he was sure that before he even noticed, he would hear the electronic beep from the AI.

    He hurriedly went back to his apartment and found a fresh-looking Wind in a purple-colored suit. Fell couldn''t help but see the aura of an official when looking at his brother. He decided to mimic him and donned a black colored suit; when he looked at himself, he couldn''t help but not recognize himself for a second.

    The two of them left the apartment with dashing looks. They traversed the city, nightfall had arrived, and the building shined with a thousand lights. The numerous skyscrapers had turned into sharp, incandescent blades that cut through the darkness and illuminated the firmament. The cars were similar to fireflies that ran through the streets, and the whole city seemed to turn alive when darkness arrived.

    After a few minutes of walk, the small group of two arrived in front of a gigantic building. Its base alone was so large that it could be considered a mansion, and the numerous flours extended toward the clouds and seemed to infinitely grow higher. Fell couldn''t help but whistle as his eyes passed through the different parts of the building; he was honestly surprised by humanity''s potential at defying gravity, and couldn''t help but think about the monetary resources needed to construct and manage such building.

    "Them nobles are filthy rich!?", exclaimed Wind while lowering the pair of cheap sunglasses he was wearing.

    Fell nodded silently and stepped in toward the entrance of the building. Wind followed suit, and several other guests were also in the midst of stepping inside of the domain of the nobles. The guests around them were dressed in suits and dresses that were worth nearly the same price as an apartment in the city. If that amount of money was taken to the Core, it would be enough to cause mass murder and infighting between the citizen.

    But here, those tissues and dazzling ornament were signs of the guests'' status. When they entered through the main, golden colored, door they noticed a soft carpet on the floor welcoming their venues. Butlers and maiden could be seen on both sides of the door, welcoming guests and verifying their invitation cards.

    "Good evening, sir, may I check your invitation card?", asked a middle-aged man, who donned a butler''s suit, to Fell with a polite and kind smile on his face.

    Fell couldn''t help but have a good impression of the honest man, and flashed his card from a pocket of his trouser. He gave it to the man, and continued walking with Wind by his side. The young official had already released his soul aura and was appearing like a dashing young man in the eyes of the Guest.

    He had already been quite the man before training, but now that he had gained dozens of pounds and had solidified his confidence to the utmost. He immediately turned into a dazzling star when standing in the middle of the luxurious hall; young maiden and wives couldn''t help but look twice at his direction, and even a few men couldn''t help but look towards him.

    "You''re already drawing quite the attention, brother!", murmured Fell with a grin on his lips. His grown hairs were attached in a modest, yet elegant, ponytail that softly rested on his broad shoulders. And even with his powerful looks, the numbers of eyes marking him were far less than the overbearing Wind. But obviously, all of that was part of his plan as he was doing his best in reducing his breath and aura.

    "Let''s get ourselves a few drinks!", responded Wind with his eyes dancing all over the place. When he spoked about drinks, his eyes weren''t exactly at the bar on the side, but on a group composed with a few maidens dressed in long robes. He flashed a charming smile towards them and pumped his chest forward before advancing with uncanny confidence in his steps.

    Fell couldn''t help but softly move his head to the side, but nonetheless, still followed Wind with an annoyed gaze on his youthful face. He politely nodded toward a few guests on his passage, and they swiftly made their way toward the side of the hall where a bar had been installed.

    Wind arrived first and put his elbow on the counter while slightly contracting his muscles to make his suit tighten. His lips opened, and Fell could swear that the voice that left his brother''s lips wasn''t his own. "Two glasses of wine!", a powerful yet calm voice escaped from his throat before he turned toward the ladies by his side and flashed a powerful smile toward them.

    The illusion was so strong that one of the girls fluttered slightly and had to take a step back before leaving the group. Fell didn''t know if she was smitten or cringed by his brother''s actions, but he was sure that the rest of the maidens in their group had fallen under his brother''s illusion.

    The bartender gave Wind two glasses of flamboyant red wine while doing so; he avoided looking directly at the man in front of him. His cheeks reddened slightly, and he avoided Wind''s gaze when looking at him.

    "What a perverse man¡­", thought Fell, while he regretted giving him the cultivation crystal that contained Anzar''s soul method. He grabbed Wind by the shoulder, before nodding toward the bartender and pulled Wind from the bar. At first, Wind was going to argue, but when he noticed the cold glint, sharp and deadly, that appeared in Fell''s eyes. He stopped himself and quietly left himself be taken with a soft sigh.

    "What a shame¡­ My charms had grown to the point where even my brother can''t resist me¡­", he thought in his head. He knew that had he dared say that out loud, Fell would have bashed his head straight through the marbled floor.

 Chapter 172 - Invitation Part Four

    If Wind dared to act as he wanted, it was because he knew when to stop in his weird antics with Fell. Deep down, fear of his brother had been marked down to his very soul. Thus, he simply let himself get pulled by Fell and even went to the extent of pulling back his soul cultivation base inside of his body.

    "Let''s go to the main venue.", exclaimed Fell as he began walking towards the mass of guests at their front. Sounds of laughter resounded everywhere around them, glasses were filled and emptied at an incredible speed, and the cumulative noise from the guests caused quite the confusion in Fell''s ears.

    His heightened senses as a cultivator turned into discomfort as the most minute noise created by a shoe against the red carpet was magnified for him. The small talk from the hundreds of guests turned into a grating disturbance that pierced through his eardrum. Thankfully, the place where they were at was a large hall, and after walking for a few minutes, they appeared in a gigantic courtyard that wasn''t as filled as the reception. Fell managed to escape the cacophony that was torturing him.

    "Are you okay, brother?", asked Wind as he noticed Fell''s strange complexion. Who in turn silently nodded as he enjoyed the calmness of the courtyard. Fell began walking in the calm courtyard and enjoyed the quiet night as a windy breeze soothed his senses. He noticed that a few nobles had also escaped from the brimming reception hall, and made their way to the silent courtyard.

    The courtyard was composed of three different alleys. One was filled with a multitude of paths, dozens of flowers were placed on both sides, and their color turned even more vibrant under the moonlight''s, soft and delicate, touch. In the center of the garden was a large pond; fishes of different species and form could be seen gracefully swimming in it. The last part of the courtyard was a cemented area where dozens of tables were placed, and close to it was a large door that led to another part of the mansion.

    The view was exceptionally beautiful, and from their spots, they could see a copious amount of floor coming from the main part of the building. A few individuals could be seen with the head pointing to the sky, their gaze locked on the towering building that rose, toward the sky, in front of them.

    A deep, acute noise took the guest out of their tranquility. Fell turned his head and noticed that a group of youth had made their way in the courtyard. Condescending, arrogant, and vicious smiles were plastered on their faces as they made their way through the courtyard. Fell had noticed them the moment they entered due to a sensation that appeared on his body. It was similar to when a bug crawled on top of one''s skin.

    Wind also noticed that the youth''s gazes were locked on them, and couldn''t help but slightly approach Fell before mumbling.

    "Looks like we''ve got some trouble here¡­", before adding. "You don''t mind if I take care of them?", his eyes glowed with a strange light; a grin had his way to his lips, and his eyes didn''t quit the group of youth for a single second.

    Fell couldn''t help but smile, and could only quietly acquiesce as his brother seemingly found his prey. He had found that for a banquet in his name, he had been ignored quite a lot even if the night had just begun. He decided that if they didn''t feel like paying them respect, he would humble himself and be the one to open the dance.

    "Don''t kill them¡­", a soft order escaped from between his lips.

    During this time, the group of youth had already crossed the courtyard and made their way to their position. Six youth stood in front of them, and the one that looked like their leaders took a step in toward them with contempt in his gaze.

    "I heard you''ve made quite the ruckus in our city!", a hostile tone escaped from his mouth; his eyes were locked on Fell during his speech.

    "Are you deaf?", he exclaimed as he noticed that Fell was looking at the ponds instead of responding to his provocation. To his left, Wind''s hands were trembling slightly, and he nearly felt as if he couldn''t contain himself anymore.

    "I can''t understand why the elders want to befriend them¡­ Those old rags are really too afraid of losing their position!", mumbled one of the youths as he felt his blood nearly boiling.

    "Why don''t we show them that what they fear, we don''t!".

    The six youth rotated their cultivation base in unison. The wind crackled near their body as their energy rotated in their meridians; Fell''s gazed left to the pond and rested on the six cultivator youths for a second.

    He accurately judged their cultivation before a disappointment flashed in his eyes for a moment; then his gaze left them, and he resumed looking at the scenery in the courtyard.

    His action was similar to pouring gasoline on fire, and the youth in front of them boiled from the inside as anger was apparent on their face. "Tonight, the elder won''t even need to make a move on you. Don''t worry, you''re going to pay for this!"

    "Let''s use his body to fertilize this soil!", exclaimed one while taking a step in.

    "What a bunch of fearless cubs¡­", exclaimed Wind as he couldn''t trust his eyes. "Looks like you''ve got shits in your eyes for not recognizing the danger in front of you.", he added before a savage glint flashed in his pupil.

    Wind rotated his soul cultivation base to the utmost. His eyes darkened, turning into a deep abyss that swallowed every will that dared to come close. His pore opened, and the next moment a veil of darkness left his body and assaulted the group of youth.

 Chapter 173 - Invitation Part Five

    With the appearing billows of darkness leaving Wind''s body, the youth stepped forward with clear battle intent in their eyes. Their energy rotated in their meridians; their bodies glowed in numerous colors, and they took a step towards Wind at the same time.

    The dark clouds that escaped Wind were the manifestation of his soul, and it quickly spread toward his opponent, encompassing them and sealing them in a veil of obscurity.

    Then, in every speck of the soul cloud, exploded a wisp of murderous intent. The group of cultivators were in the middle of their retaliation, their fists were tightly clenched. Their legs were crossing the distance towards Wind. But the moment the murderous intent was released; all of them felt a cold and deadly intent grasp at their necks.

    Their movements came to a standstill, and unbeknownst to their intentions, they found their body locked in the same place.

    "What the hell is this?", tried to exclaim one of the youths in a dramatic fit of panic. But what left his mouth was a muffled sound that was hidden with his clattering teeth.

    Wind calmly stepped in and walked one step at a time towards the group of youth. The sound of his steps turned into a nightmare in the group of cultivator''s minds, and every speck of emotion was intensified and magnified in the cloud of darkness. They stood in place with trembling legs; their face had long thrown their bravery and contempt, replaced with a mask of horror and fear.

    Their heart nearly skipped a beat with every footstep they heard; their mind was filled with multiple visions of horror that came from Wind''s soul power. The fight hadn''t even begun that he had already ended it; the group of youths unable to even express themselves in the fear.

    "Wait, d-d-d-ont!?", screamed one in horror while soiling his underwear.

    "I am¡­", a broken voice escaped Wind''s throat and sounded as if broken glass had made its way in his throat. "Your worst fear. Tonight, you''ve made the mistake of leaving your pitiful fantasies. And you dared to step in my realm¡­"

    "The price for that is¡­ Death!", his voice was magnified in the cloud of darkness. And one of the youths fainted immediately when he heard Wind finish his sentence.

    "Calm down guys, he is a soul cultivator!", roared the youth that had spoken in contempt about the elder of his family. He was the strongest of them, and even with having fallen in Wind''s illusion, he managed to gather his will and fight back against Wind''s soul power. But as an energy cultivator, he had no means of fully blocking Wind''s murderous intent.

    But, with a desperate roar filled his pride and unwillingness to finish like his peers. He managed to break through the illusion with sheer will, and moved his frozen body despite the inner fear his mind was under.

    "Illusion is only for weakling!", he screamed while rushing toward Wind.

    "Sweet, a lost lamb has made its way out of its fearful pack¡­", mumbled Wind while continuing walking with his casual pace. "But does the delicious lamb know the price for going against destiny?".

    "Shut up!", roared the man as he threw a fist toward Wind. But as his mind wasn''t completely free of Wind''s influence, his movements weren''t precise, and nearly a third of the energy he rotated had escaped before the fist even made contact with Wind.

    Wind twisted his chest, and with a dancer''s grace, stepped the left, evading the fist with ease. In the same continuity of movement, with water-like fluidity, he twisted his waist and released a fast sweep with legs.

    Thud! The noble''s body tumbled toward the ground, and his face flattened the dirt on the ground. But that wasn''t all; a swift kick was released right after the first one; connecting straight with the noble''s ribcage. A sound of bone breaking resounded in the darkness, and a painful scream was magnified, turning into a ghastly howl that sent chills in the spines of the other nobles.

    Wind executed another kick to neutralize the noble in front of him entirely. He couldn''t help but whistle and gaze at the result with a satisfied grin on his lips. He then began making his way in the darkness with playful steps; in the courtyard, he gave the impression that he was a joyous gardener in the middle of weeding out the bad herbs and flowers.

    Teeth were popped out of their place, and arms were bent in the opposite direction; Wind took a strange pleasure in hitting down the fearful noble. Fell couldn''t help but sigh when he saw his brother act like this, but he knew that stopping him now might break the image he was building.

    "They pay the price for their own doing¡­", he thought as he couldn''t help but think they were doing the elder''s job of teaching their young generation. "Should I ask for a fee for this?", he thought as he gazed at Wind''s macabre torture.

    After a few seconds of despair, the cloud of darkness returned inside of Wind''s body, and with it disappeared the murderous intent. Under the surprise of the few guests that were in the courtyard, the six noble youth appeared on the ground, meek and weak sound escaped their busted lips.

    "Now, that''s what I call a satisfying beating¡­", mumbled Wind as he exhaled a deep breath. He patted a few specks of dust from his suit, before returning next to Fell.

    A horrified scream escaped from a female guest; the maiden''s voice extended past the courtyard and gathered some attention from individuals that were nearby. Due to that, sounds of hurried footsteps resounded, and a group of armed guards made their way in the courtyard.

    The team of guards quickly made their way towards Fell''s position. They separated in two; dozens of rifle muzzles locked their aim on the pair of cultivators, while the rest of the guards checked the noble youth''s condition.

 Chapter 174 - Paying Respect Part One

    Wind couldn''t help but swallow a mouthful of saliva down his throat; although he had acted brazen, a single one placed bullet could end his life in a moment. He couldn''t help but slightly take a step back and gazed at his brother to see his reaction.

    Fell calmly gazed at the pair of guards. His eyes passed on the youth''s body in the floor, and then on the barrels that were locked on his figure. He opened his lips and exclaimed in a disinterested tone.

    "No one died, no need to point those toys on me.", he then added as he remembered. "Call the family heads; I have a matter with them that need to be dealt with.

    At first, the guards were dumbfounded by the youth''s reaction. They couldn''t help but ask themselves who was the youth in front of him, and how did he dare ignore them.

    "Who sent you here!", asked one of them with a slightly menacing tone. His finger was on the trigger, and he was ready to shoot at any moment''s notice.

    Fell sighed for a moment as he noticed the animosity in the guard''s eyes. He looked at his surroundings and noticed that a large group of guests had arrived and were watching the scene. They were quite interested in the beating that had just happened and now the return of situation. Their gazes were similar to when one looked at a sport event, and he even knew that most of them hoped for the guards to unload their magazine on them.

    Another sigh escaped his lips; his eyes darted from the guests to the guards in front of him. He noticed the stress that was accumulating in them, and one of them could even be seen slightly trembling from adrenaline. "Calm down lads, no need to turn this into a shooting event¡­".

    One of the disabled youths on the ground grunted before ordering with tears in his eyes. "Shoot them!? I''m the little brother of the next heir; this humiliation can only be washed with blood!", anger fueled, he roared, and a crazed glint was in his eyes. If he could get up and grab the weapon himself, he would have already unloaded the rifle on them.

    The guards couldn''t help but grip their weapon tighter, a few of them braced their hearts and readied themselves for a bloodbath.

    But just as they were going to press their rifle''s trigger, Fell stepped in; he disappeared from the eyes of the spectator''s in an instant. His ghostly figure materialized in front of the guard, and the next moment he was back next to Fell. His movement had been so abrupt that a few spectators couldn''t help but rub their eyes, thinking that what they saw was a mirage caused by their slightly drunken minds.

    "What the hell just happened?!", mumbled one guest as he turned his sight toward the empty glass in his hand.

    "A sword!?", exclaimed another guest in surprise.

    "He didn''t have one before!"

    Fell quietly sheathed Soldier''s Fortune back. A few guards tried to react when they saw him disappear, and reappear but the moment they tried to shoot. They could only find with disappointment that their rifles weren''t responding; then, their weapon fell apart before turning into a pile of metal waste on the floor.

    A scream escaped from one of the guards as he took a step back in horror. He hadn''t quit Fell with his eyes for a second, and could only feel an ungodly fear when he gazed at the rest of metal scrap that constituted his weapon. The fear in his heart was transmitted to his peer and they all took several steps back in a row.

    "This is how you express your gratitude for this banquet that is made in your honor?!", a loud voice barked out of nowhere. Fell calmly gazed at the new figure, and noticed that three other men were following him. He recognized them the moment he laid his eyes on them. They were the noble family top executives; the ones he had met after fighting with the old general from the Golden Family.

    He couldn''t help but throw a cold glare on them, yet at the same time had a beaming smile on his face. Now that he was here, he could finally grab the money he had been promised.

    "Didn''t we befriend each other, young cultivator?", asked one of the executives with a pained look in his eyes. He made it sound to the rest of the guests as if Fell was a criminal that attacked with no reason.

    "I came here to take what is mine!", responded Fell in a matter of fact tone. "Or, did you forgot your promises?", the executive that had just spoken couldn''t help but have an ugly expression on his face; followed a slight outburst of anger that was quickly contained.

    "My friend!", spoke another executive. "This matter is between us, you shouldn''t have taken it on the younger generation¡­", he added while gazing at the injured youth with a pitiful and sad look in his face.

    Wind, feeling that his brother was being ganged up on, couldn''t help but let a counter-attack escape from his lips. "You should have up a rope on your dogs, buddy. If you want my opinion, they might have rabies, they didn''t even wait for you guys and directly came barking and biting at us."

    The executives looked at Wind and were dumbfounded as they didn''t expect the youth to intervene. One of them recognized him after deeply looking at his facial feature, and couldn''t help but be surprised when he saw that the man was present during their first confrontation with Fell.

    "Aren''t you afraid of losing your tongue for spouting such lies?", an executive jumped forward as he couldn''t help but be angered by Wind''s sharp tongue.

    "What about you? Aren''t you afraid of losing your decorum, by not giving what you owe to my brother?", Wind added, clearly intoxicated by the feeling of being watched by all.

 Chapter 175 - Paying Respect Part Two

    Wind''s intervention astonished the executives; silence prevailed for a few seconds in the large courtyard, and one of the executives nearly flew in a fit of rage, ready to beat the crap out of the disrespectful youth. However, none of that happened, and that was simply due to Fell.

    When the executive from the Merendinis Family was fuming with anger, his sight inadvertently passed on Fell, and the youth''s cold gaze acted though a cold bucket that managed to calm him. Those eyes had left a deep impression on him, and with his many years of experience, he could genuinely recognize someone who wasn''t afraid.

    The executive threw a few glances to each other, and without ushering a single word, through fear managed to come to the same conclusion. They would calm the situation, diffusing it to avoid any loss in front of the large crowd while waiting for the elders of their respective families.

    "Respectful guests¡­ No need to turn this matter into a serious one. The promise that was done with you will be kept, and that is with my name on the line!", the executive added a deep bow to his speech. When his head was low, an ugly expression flashed on his face. And he focused on constantly repeating himself to calm down as he couldn''t afford to lose control of the matter.

    The guests were surprised by the turn of event, clearly expecting much more than a simple apology. But the reality, in front of them, forcing them to accept that the noble family had bowed in front of two youth.

    "I guess they aren''t that mighty¡­", mumbled one the guest while making sure his voice wasn''t loud.

    But one of the executives heard the comment and couldn''t help but feel like smacking the bastard right there. Thankfully, he stopped himself, or else his action would prove that the man''s comment was right.

    "Who is this youth?", whispered a maiden without quitting Fell from her sight. Her father, who was at her side, couldn''t help but delve through his memory; but it was to no avail, as Fell wasn''t well known through the central district. The noble families were aware of his existence, but that was only true when it came to the higher echelon of the city.

    "Isn''t he quite dashing?", exclaimed another one while tugging at the dress of a woman at the side, who clearly wasn''t focused on what her sister was telling her. All eyes were marked on the figure of Fell, and most of the guests couldn''t help but fathom how deep his backing was.

    Little did they know that no grand family was securing his back and that every action he was doing was based on his own strength. The noble families'' retaliation was far from being soft, and through the year, their revenge had always gone in pair with blood and despair. That was why most of the guests here thought that Fell came from another city; merely assuming that he was a noble from a faraway land.

    "Let us continue the night.", expressed one of the executives with a loud clap of his hands -Taking the spirit of the guests out of their reveries and speculation- and made their thought move on from the event that just happened.

    After the loud clap, a large crew formed of butlers and maids appeared in the courtyard. A few of them had a large metallic tray. On them were dozens of delicacies that stole the guests'' attention. A pair of sturdy, and well shaped butlers, took care of the six bodies in the ground and left the courtyard while ignoring the gaze that came from the guests.

    Wind was surprised by the sudden turn of event, and couldn''t help but look at Fell with tremendous respect in his eyes. Although he had already placed his brother in a high pedestal; what has just happen caused the zealous feeling he had for him to multiply.

    "Shit¡­ You''re quite something!", shrugged Wind toward Fell in a soft tone.

    "What about you?", laughed Fell. Implying that Wind had shown a fearless side of his personality when facing the executive with his sharp tongue.

    Wind couldn''t help but have a shy laugh, and awkwardly scratched the back of his head with a sly grin. "I would, obviously, have never dared to such action if it wasn''t for your presence?", he added before turning toward a maid with a tray that was on his left.

    Fell nodded silently while looking at his brother, who was in the midst of ravaging an entire tray by himself. "I can''t help but think that this bastard would dare to go against god by himself¡­", he thought before exhaling a long mute sigh. He knew that the night had just begun, and that this event was just a prologue to what would expire later in the night.

    He was all too aware that the noble couldn''t swallow a loss for more than a few hours. Thankfully, he didn''t have to act and had kept his technique hidden from his enemies eyes. Although he wasn''t fearful in the case, they were prepared for him, and even if they tried to counter his sword style. He would simply ignore their attempt and cut through anything that came his way.

    That was his way of life, and he wouldn''t change it. But if he managed to keep his cards hidden, that could help him achieve success without expending more energy. And the fact that they didn''t know the extent of his strength also helped as he wasn''t aware of their full capacities either.

    "The four elders are a mystery¡­ And I feel that won''t be the sole trial of this night. Yet, I just need to push through and break everything in my path!", he thought while silently gazing at the partying guests in front of him. "This night will serve as a lesson for everyone, that the mighty nobles are just like the rest of us."

 Chapter 176 - Paying Respect Part Three

    With that thought in head, Fell followed the wandering Wind as he saw him quit the courtyard and delve deeper into the noble''s mansion. Although he wasn''t afraid for the young official as the man had ample resources to get out of any situation, he still felt that he was an easy target in case of retaliation.

    "He didn''t go easy on them, and now he''s already back at his antiques¡­", shrugged Fell while looking at Wind, who was running at the tails of pure maidens. His eyes were glowing with luminescent charms- clearly a use of his soul cultivation- and had already washed away the scummy portrait he was always wearing.

    His knight in white''s act left him with a feeling of not knowing whether to cry or laugh, and he couldn''t help but fathom how shameless his acts were.

    But that was just an act that Fell misunderstood as fearlessness. Wind wasn''t as brazen as that, although he didn''t lack anything in his lower pants; he knew that breaking the image he had created might cause suspicion when it came to the noble families. And if even a shred of doubt appeared when it came to his strength, they wouldn''t be polite and would bite straight back at him.

    Sadly, that wasn''t something he could fully assume. And even if his strength as a cultivator was ample to beat a few youths from his generation, when it came to the executives, he wasn''t sure how he would fare against them. Not even taking into account the fact that a single well placed bullet could leave his body lying limply on the floor.

    Time passed quietly, and the guests seemed to forget about the event that just happened. Alcohol and delicacies continuously flowed in the large hall where the guests had moved; the poor butlers and maids were overcharged by the constant travel and serving.

    In the large hall where the party had moved, tables upon tables had been set for the many guests to sit around. Names had been placed on them, and a clear order had been put in place for the many spots at hands. Still, the night was still early, and the many guests were moving between different groups as they socialized with the city''s higher class.

    In those circumstances, Wind was akin to a fish swimming in clear water, and due to his act, daring to go against the noble families, he acquired quite a high standing in the eyes of the guests who sought his presence more than Fell. Accepting cups and getting presented to the daughters of many nobles was a pleasure he never had the opportunity to savor.

    If it wasn''t for him keeping his emotions in check. He would already be laughing like a retard, with a smile that would extend way past his ears.

    As for Fell, although he felt like drinking some wine alone, the guests decided otherwise, and a constant flood of people was making its way towards his position. At first, he couldn''t help but annoyed as his senses were abnormally heightened as he knew that he was on enemy grounds. But as he noticed the sympathetically smile on the guest that came with good intention towards him, his view changed and he also began partaking in socializing.

    Time passed quickly, and with the many drinks at disposal, the alcohol rate in the guests'' blood rose at a fast rate. Humans were social creatures, and in events of this size, it was quite easy to go overboard when it came to intoxication. Thankfully, most of the nobles were used to those kinds of events, and even with the enormous consumption of liquor, they knew how to keep a decent decorum in public.

    As for Wind, that wasn''t the case at all and if it wasn''t for Fell who had helped him take out alcohol from his system. The young official would have already been drunk; the slap filled with energy would cause Wind''s pore to open up, releasing wisps of alcohol fumes from them.

    "You should teach me this trick brother¡­", said Wind with reddened cheeks.

    "This isn''t a ''trick,''¡­", responded Fell with a sigh. "You can learn it too, I''m not sure yet, but this effect can be attained with any kind of bodily control. Be it physical, mental, or with spatial energy.". A strange form of encouragement escaped his lips; he remembered the battle center''s elder''s word and couldn''t help but tell them to his slightly intoxicated brother.

    "All paths lead to the same road. Keep your vision vast, and don''t turn into an existence akin to those fishes in the pond."

    Wind didn''t seem to truly understand the sentence and looked carefully for signs of intoxication on Fell''s face. He then decided to just mark the sentence in his memory, as he would ponder about it later when sober. With a few other discreet palm slaps, he felt his mental clarity raise to a sufficient state as the last bits of undigested alcohol left his body.

    At the same moment, a bell rang in the large ballroom, its deep and acute noise pierced through the eardrums of the guests and stole their focus for what they have been doing.

    "The dinner will start soon. Dear guests from our beautiful city, please join the tables where you have been assigned!", the bell ended the moment the voice spread through the large space. And with those orders, the guests expressed their last wishes to the friends who weren''t at their tables and began looking for their spots.

    Fell had already looked for his place, and as his watchful gaze passed through the large space. He noticed that a butler was making his way towards him while beckoning to him with a polite gesture.

    The pair of cultivators made their way towards the butler who showed them the way toward their table. Before long, the butler stopped in his track and showed the way with his hand.

    "You will sit with the esteemed guests of our masters if you please.", he exclaimed matter of fact before disappearing.

 Chapter 177 - Paying Respect Part Four

    Fell''s views followed the direction pointed by the butler. A gigantic round table appeared in his view; it was placed in the middle of the ballroom and was placed directly under the shining chandelier. As he approached the table with calm steps, he noticed that the table was directly carved out of a dense crystal.

    The dozens of lights in the ceiling were reflected on the table, and with a quick view of the other table, Fell and Wind noticed that the table where they were put was clearly on a different level.

    When they arrived at the table, most of the people sitting there were part of the four noble families. And a hidden, yet clear, hostility could be sensed from the individual sitting there. The pair of cultivators were pointed to two spots, where they swiftly made their way to before sitting.

    The chairs were made with high end technology, and adjusted themselves automatically depending on the person''s height. Wind couldn''t help but blurt a few nonsensical jokes about the table''s layout, and he only stopped when Fell threw him a cold glare. Then trays upon trays of dishes made their way toward the hundreds of tables.

    The pair of cultivators couldn''t help but have their eyes lit up when they saw the numerous dishes and ingredients that they couldn''t even name. Fishes from other planets and continents, eggs from strange magical creatures and fruits that only grew under certain conditions. Their pallet could be said to have been taught that night, and their mind engraved the memory of every single dish that night.

    A food that was dozens of time more nutritious than the one on Earth. At the first bite of a tender rosy meat, Fell heard his body react with tremendous grumble the moment the protein in the food dispersed in his system. The pair wolfed down on the food with such savagery that a few of the noble at their table couldn''t help but put their forks on the table- Clearly disgusted by the pair''s hoodlum antics - yet they couldn''t leave the table as that went against the rule of their clans.

    "Have they never eaten in their whole life?", asked a lady in her fifties with a worry filling her eyes. She softly sighed before pushing the plate in front of her toward Wind.

    "Shankiou!", a muffled sound escaped Wind''s oiled lips. During his responses, the stuffed food in his mouth acted like a vacuum. Bits of the food he was eating flew toward the kind lady.

    Fell had completely shut down his senses during the dinner and was entirely focused on sending as much energy to his body. "They''re even letting me get ready for what might happen!", he thought while sending a deadly glare to a teenager that was going for a piece of fried unknown meat he wanted.

    The youngster nearly soiled his underwear but managed to contain himself as he knew that if he reacted badly, he would be lectured by his elders. Time passed slowly, and the sounds of munching turned into a hellish cacophony that took the noble out of their gluttonous food.

    "You guys eat food like this every day?", asked Fell after swallowing a whole piece of steak in one go. The man he had asked the question to nearly spilled the mouthful of wine he had sipped, a wry smile appeared in his lips before he inadvertently acquiesced. But what he didn''t say was that only the sole elders of his family could eat food this nutritious.

    If one looked at the other tables, although their servings were top quality dishes with incredible ingredients, he would notice that a clear difference existed between them. One was food that could be found anywhere on Earth, and on Fell''s table were ingredients that came from other worlds and planet.

    Not even talking about their rarity, just the shipping cost could ruin a man if he decided to eat them every day. And there were two youths who were ruining their special pleasure. Eating those delicacies that could only be eaten once in a while with the same intensity as one ate fried chicken in a fast-food restaurant.

    Another train of trays made its way to their table, and the empty silvery trail was emptied before another pair of servings was put in place. Fell and Wind couldn''t help but gaze at a few plates that weren''t completely empty, and heavily hesitated on asking the butler to put him to his side.

    The poor man felt Fell''s piercing gaze, with drool that was escaping from the corner of the black haired youth''s oiled lips, couldn''t help but put empty the plate on Fell''s already filled plate. Wind tried to replicate his brother''s technique, but it was to no avail as the butler''s were already making their way out of the cursed table. He ended up pouting for the rest of the meal; adding the cute pout to his dirtied and oiled face killed the last bit of hunger that existed in the nobles'' heart.

    A dozen minutes later, a loud burp resonated in the middle of the large ballroom. The incredible sound resounded perfectly in a specific frame of time where no one was speaking, hundreds of eyes dropped on the table from where the sound had come.

    There the guest had the opportunity to gaze at a strange yet incredible scene. A messed up and oiled from head to toe Wind was pointing toward one of the youths in the table. His face, beyond serious, was harsh yet contained the softness of a senior brother''s gaze.

    "Little one, burping might be natural, but in events like this you should try to contain yourself a little bit."

    "I know, I know, coming from a grand family causes some pressure, and you want to look natural and dashing like your big brother here. But remember, it''s all about a strange balance of dignity and composure!", he added with a matter of fact tone.

    £¬

 Chapter 178 - Paying Respect Part Five

    All noticed the unbelievable scene. And the image of a filthy Wind lecturing a noble of the younger generation would be marked in their mind for a long time.

    What was even worse was that the youth who was being lectured had to nod respectfully. Even forced by a cold glare to express his gratitude for the valuable lesson he was taught. Also, Fell himself couldn''t trust the degree of quirkiness from the scene that was unraveling in front of him.

    That being said, it showed him a valuable lesson that as the nobles'' top executives have backed down from a fight. That would also be true for the one under them, leaving the only possible enemies being the sole elders from the families and the hidden otherworldly guest that resided in them.

    That valuable piece of information was worth much more than the row of awkward glance that was thrown toward the pair of cultivators. Glances that were at first embarrassed and held a nonnegligible amount of contempt, that came from the numerous guests, soon turned into admiration as they noticed the mighty ruler of New Casablanca bow their head in front of a bad-mannered youth.

    "That youth with the sunglasses is¡­", mumbled of the guest that was sitting close to Fell''s table.

    "An incredible figure", responded someone near him.

    "His ability to bend reality and logic is unbelievable¡­"

    Yet a few of the guests noticed that the matter wasn''t as simple as that. The well-hidden anger in the eyes of the four noble families would disappear the moment their sight would drop on the black-haired youth. The few observant guests noticed that, and came to the understanding that Fell was the origin of their fear and inability to take out the annoying Wind.

    What was annoying beyond madness to some; Was a matter of joy to the others. Everything depended on the sides and perceptions of the individuals.

    A few guests could be seen looking at each other; the hidden intention in their gaze portrayed their thoughts about the on-going events. Those individuals were the families that stood right under the four leading noble families and had tried to vie for their spots for years.

    They knew that tonight''s events were far too weird, and as a few of them were cultivator could notice the raging dormant energy that sat at the central table in the middle of the ballroom.

    Although Fell had made his best in reducing his breath, part of his aura could still escape despite his attempt at blocking it in his body, and that added to the fact that he cultivated all three systems made it difficult for him to go unnoticed.

    In the eyes of the few cultivators among the guest, a sheeted sword that released this amount of pressure when hidden couldn''t be underestimated. What if the sword flew out of its sheath, and revealed the full might of cutting edges, that fact alone wholly changed their perception of the black-haired youth.

    If they continued thinking that the extent of his strength only stopped at what he was showing them. That would only lead to their loss, or even worst, their death.

    The noble family system had been in place in their city for an extended period. The families were closer to organization or clan than truly blood bonded families that usually existed; That fact had turned the contest of hegemony into a bloodied battle that has lasted since then. Just among the four noble families, three of them had climbed to their spots from among the mass.

    The Taggerio-Henrys-and Merendinies Family were far from having a long history, and only the Golden Family had existed for nearly a century. That fact alone had created constant tension among the noble families of the city as anybody could climb from a lower position ¡ª a savage world where the downfall of the economic and political hegemony could happen over a single night.

    "Change is happening tonight¡­", a middle-aged man name Orlen thought as he gazed at the face of a few members from the four noble families. The grey-haired, middle-aged man was part of the Oris Family -One of the many families that stood in the spot right under the four leading families- and had come to understand the bets that were at holds tonight.

    An individual that could cause change the power balance on his own had appeared. His appearance could be assigned to a bad omen for some, but to others, it was the same a golden egg laid by heaven. The opportunity that many had been waiting for had emerged.

    With the undeniable truth that he had already shown his fang to the main four, was a piece of delightful news for many noble families.

    The last bits of contempt that existed in their heart disappeared, and a few individuals even went to the extent of sending amiable gaze to the pair of cultivators. Although they had already socialized a little bit before the diner, those interactions were at most polite, and no sign of friendship had appeared, nor had they crushed that possibility.

    The famed bell of the golden family resounded, and large trays filled with large plates made their way to each table. The silver plates that were filled with the many nutritious delicacies were cleaned out of the hall.

    Their contents had since long been emptied down someone''s throat.

    And what replaced them caused the eyes of many maiden to glow in many colorful lights.

    Cakes of numerous colors and shape could be seen on every tables. And the dinner advanced to its last part, with the many guests having eaten to their fill, they completed their royal meal with sweets that warmed the heart of everyone in the venue.

    In front of Fell, appeared many pastries and cake, but after tasting one of them, his interest in the sugary sweets was stopped short. On the contrary, his eyes were intrigued by the many fruits that laid at hand in front of him.

 Chapter 179 - Strange Aftertaste Part One

    What intrigued him wasn''t the taste of those fruits, but a strange medicinal smell that escaped from them. He grabbed a round apple shaped fruit that was in front of him; his skin nearly slipped on the glossy surface of the fruit, and the light coming from the chandelier was reflected on its smooth surface.

    He approached the purple fruit to his nose and sniffed a few times before his eyes opened in surprise. Without any hesitation, he bit through the glossy skin of the fruit and munched a few times before swallowing. Waves of surprise washed his body as not only the fruit wasn''t hard to consume-nearly turning into a liquid from a few chews- but a fresh and chilling sensation spread through his body.

    The sensation was extremely identical to consuming mild medicinal pills. After the aftertaste of the fruit died down, he took a few more bites of the fruit. Like before, it didn''t take much time for the fruit to turn into a cold yet refreshing liquid containing very mild but tenacious energy. He scooped a few fruits in his plate and began filling his body with the mild energy coming from the fruits.

    Every single one of the fruits had a different flavor, and a specific particularity in its affinity. The first one caused a chilling coldness that spread through his body, while the second caused a warm sensation to appear on his skin. Another person who had bitten of the same fruit could be seen fuming with red skin, his pores opened up and small wisp of black steam could be seen escaping from the surface of his skin.

    Fell couldn''t help but have greed flashed in his thought, and with a hidden and subtle movement, he scooped a few fruits now and then inside of his spatial pocket. He tested every fruit that came to his sight, and had even nearly got up from his chair to lookout in the nearby tables. But he had quickly noticed with a few glances that the table where he was contained every variety of fruit, and even a few rarities that were only available to them.

    Wind had also noticed the value of the fruit. But sadly, he didn''t have any spatial pocket and simply decided to scoop the one he took in his stomach, directly consuming them. The nearby noble could understand that Fell could eat one fruit after the other, as they were somewhat aware of his bodily strength. But the scene of Wind swallowing one fruit after another caused them waves upon waves of shock.

    They simply couldn''t understand how a sane human being could support the phenomenon caused by the energy filled fruit. His body was constantly trembling and passed from one extreme to another, but he managed to push through and kept stuffing one fruit after another in his mouth.

    "He clearly is suffering¡­ But he still isn''t stopping!", one of the guests couldn''t help but explain.

    "I would have done the same if I was in his stead.", one of the first step cultivators thought with a face filled with envy. He too would have wanted the fruit''s juice splashed all over his jaw, and to have the pleasure to not care about the cost nor the rarity of each of those otherworldly fruits.

    Sadly, he could only watch with sadness in his eyes while eating half of a fruit that was on his plate. Its skin was dehydrated and was nearly peeled out of it, and its texture was far from the juicy fruit in Wind''s hand. When he felt the meager amount of medicinal energy that was released from it, a tear nearly escaped from the corner of his eyes, and he sighed before accepting the harsh truth.

    Time passed quietly under those circumstances, and the last part of the dinner came to an end. Rows of butlers and maiden reappeared with empty trays and loaded the numerous amounts of fine silvery plates and furniture. Unfortunately for them, the process of cleaning the table out of their plate had to be repeated twice due to their numbers.

    Thankfully, the guests'' mind was still savoring the after taste of the rich dinner course. And when it was over, a few guests couldn''t help but light cigarette or cigars. And a few cultivators even rolled a mixture of spiritual herbs to smoke.

    Time passed quietly in those conditions, and due to nothing happening in their table, Fell decided to excuse himself for a short walk.  His leg took him to the large courtyard and began touring the garden with unhurried footsteps. He knew that starting now, the decorum with the nobles might fall at any moment, and he came here to mentally prepare himself for any events.

    He had no idea what the elders'' specialties were, nor did he have any information on the full extent of their power. But confidence arose in his might when he thought about his last fights; he was sure that the black skeleton was far above a first steps cultivator as for the virtual immortal. If it wasn''t for the fact that he was given ample time, the fight might have turned into something completely different.

    After touring through the garden, he noticed that a few guests had also left the main venue to clear their mind and breathe a few wisps of clean air. Although he hadn''t noticed any confrontation nor tension during the event, he could feel the hidden hostility that existed between the noble families.

    He had long gotten accustomed to the idea that their system was too flawed, and that many people would assist him if he fought against the four leading families. Certainly, their action wouldn''t be done in a direct way unless they were assured that at least one of the leading families could be taken down.

    What he was planning wasn''t just the downfall of the leading families, but the complete disappearance of the noble family''s system. That was his last and sole wish before leaving the city, a difficult project that would cut his karma here.

 Chapter 180 - Strange Aftertaste Part Two

    He hasn''t yet thought about the potential repercussion that might arise due to that; but he trusted in one asset that ruled above all, strength.

    Strength could twist reality and could cause the most vicious man to behave like the most piteous priest. That confidence alone made the possibility of changing the lives of the citizens achievable, and although he wasn''t sure if it could genuinely make their lives better. He couldn''t just leave things like they were.

    With that thought confirmed in his mind, he regained the main venue with calm but steady steps that contained his decision and resolve.

    Inside of another place in the mansion, somewhere in the many floors of the grand building.

    A group of individuals composed of dozens in number was sitting around a large table. Contrary to the tables in the ballroom, there was no silver plate; not a speck of the delicacies down there were here. Only a cubic shaped wooden box was sitting in the middle of the table.

    It was widely opened, and its content laid quietly for the individual to gaze upon. Small round pellets colored in crimson red hue were in the middle of the tablet.

    One of the men sitting in a dark spot spoke with a loud voice, grating, and filled with power.

    "The goods are here, now tell me, my good sir. Do you take them or not?", his voice contained apparent disdain. Far superior, and sharper than the one held in the nobles'' tone. As if it wasn''t just his standing or social class that was superior to the men he was talking, but his whole being as a different species.

    Four of the individuals there couldn''t help but have a change in their expression when they saw how the man treated them, but they managed to contain themselves as they knew that they weren''t capable of facing any retaliation. Those four chiefs were the esteemed elders of the leading nobles families, and the man who was speaking with them was a merchant from outer space.

    The goods he was offering them were things they had been searching for years, and it was only due to the guests at their sides that they managed to come in contact with the merchant.

    "My good sirs, although this isn''t exactly what you have been looking for. The effect isn''t that different, and the little side effect that you will experience can even turn into a fortuitous experience under the right use.", he spoke calmly and succinctly. At the same time, his hand fiddled with one of the round pills he grabbed.

    The soft light on the ceiling reflected on its surface, and a glossy crimson color appeared on its cover. Silence permeated the setting, and it was only when the merchant gazed for a long minute that he left a long sigh escape from his lips.

    "You peasant are quite difficult to deal with¡­ Final offer, half of the price we have agreed on!"

    "One more bargain, and I''ll take my shit and leave this piss poor planet without any hesitation.", his tone showed the seriousness of his offer.

    The ugliness on the elders'' faces intensified, but they didn''t dare to say a single word of fear of the man raising the price. Or even worse, leaving them without any of the pills they needed.

    Their eyes met in the darkness, and they shared the hesitation that delved in their hearts. The fact was that the price agreed upon with the man beforehand was something they had to scrape every corner of their mansion to gather.

    The offer given to them was beyond decent. The product itself had changed, causing the elders to hesitate heavily.

    Then, they thought about the punk who was eating their food and bullying their seedling. A flash of anger passed through the mind of the golden family elder, and he decisively exclaimed in a loud bark.

    "Of course, we will take!", the three other elders felt a pain in their pocket. But they could only nod in agreement with their brother.

    A burst of long laughter resounded from the throat of the merchant-Akin to several burps released in a row- before he slapped the table with a swift palm. The table nearly broke from the movement, but he couldn''t care any less, his lips parched open, and he sealed the deal with one last sentence.

    "A pleasure to do business with the bunch of you.", his eyes glowed with pleasure. Although he had been calling them piss-poor and peasant, the transaction he had just done was worth a lot more than the travel fees he had done. He couldn''t help but sigh at the thought of finding other trades like these.

    His hand swiped at the void, and three boxes similar to the one on the table appeared. He nodded toward the individuals that were here; his nod was not toward the nobles, but the guests that were at the tables, only individuals like them, had the necessary contacts to meet him.

    With one last move, he faded in the void, and the noble finally drew a lengthy tiring expiration. The eccentric antics of the merchant had wracked their nerves.

    "Fucking bastard!", one of the cursed as his voice boomed through the room. His arm was tightly clenched around the wooden armrest of his chair, armrest that turned into splintered wood after a few instants.

    "Calm down, Brother Merendinis¡­ The deal had been struck, and the money had already been transferred!", his voice also contained a tinge of regret that didn''t fade away.

    "Our loss was great.", exclaimed the Golden family elder with a mater of fact tone. "Going as far as to say the foundation of our families are at danger after this deal is an understatement. But the potential gains we can do after breaking through can help us gain back everything in less than a year!"

    "But, now we have a more pressing matter to deal with.", his hand grabbed one of the pills in the opened wooden box. "A filthy little monkey had dared to threaten us, and had even gone as far as to want what is ours."

 Chapter 181 - Strange Aftertaste Part Three

    "Tonight, we will breakthrough and ascend from our position as first steps cultivator. And what is greater than killing a noisy bug for celebrating this event!", he then turned toward the four other individuals who sat on around the table.

    Those men weren''t elders or native from the Earth but were guest that came from otherworldly clans, and planets that were far from the Earth. The nobles'' families cultivation technique, resources, and contacts with the cultivation world had all come from them. Their standing in the noble families was on par with the elders.

    Their existence was akin to the relation of the families with the cultivation era. And one of the reasons why the other nobles families were hellbent on taking the position of the leading families was the exchange for more resources with the otherworldly guests.

    The golden family elder flashed a polite smile toward the four otherworldly guests and exclaimed in a calm tone.

    "Can I count on you, good sirs?", even as he asked massive hesitation flashed on his pupil for a second. It was the first time he was requesting direct assistance from the guests, but this time their business and alliance might get reduced to nothing due to the young cultivator.

    "I know that in our contract, you have made a large emphasis on not helping our families in front combat. But this case¡­ It is too special, and I fear that if we don''t weed out this problem. It could lead to the termination of our families¡­"

    Even as the word escaped his lips, he couldn''t help but feel as if he had already swallowed a loss from Fell, and anger boiled down his innards even more. Thankfully, the guests in front of him knew the stakes that were at hand, and the four of them nodded in silence.

    He exhaled a soft sight before looking at the three elder he was allied with and grabbed one of the boxes on the tables before sitting in silence. "Those pills aren''t exactly safe, my brothers¡­ They will help us open up our path to the second step of our cultivation, but the price that we will have to pay up with will be either our lifespan¡­ Or life!"

    His eyes flashed with an evil glare as his determination solidified. "Tonight, not only will we weed out that trouble. But we will also assert our dominance to a whole other level!"

    The Taggerio elder couldn''t help but mumble a few doubt, "This plan¡­ need to stay secret, and whatever happens tonight can''t leave the walls of this mansion."

    The Merendinis elder added, "Let''s use that bastard as the culprit! His cultivation is so advanced at his age that no one will deny that his methods can''t be evil!"

    A burst of lengthy laughter escaped from the Golden family elder, and he looked at his fellow elders with deep appreciation. "What a great idea. Not only will we achieve our goals, but we will also protect our backs."

    He then fell in deep silence and added in a severe tone, "And if I''m not wrong, that bastard hadn''t only made enemies with us¡­". He turned toward the guests with a smile that wasn''t one.

    "If I''m not wrong, his breakthrough had already spread like waves through your ranks. And knowing you guys, you wouldn''t hesitate to sell that information to the biggest buyer."

    One of the otherworldly guests couldn''t help but be surprised by the golden elder''s speech, but his astonishment grew by a large margin by what would leave the elder''s lips next. "If I follow that train of thought, this city will be no more in less than a few days¡­"

    The four guests'' physical reactions showed that the golden family elder''s word had hit the mark. The latter didn''t show any response and continued speaking in a matter of fact tone. "Sorry for the early lie, but it looks like asserting our dominance to a dead city is to no use."

    "But I''m sure four, second steps cultivator, are of use to your organizations!"

    The Taggerio, Merendinis, and Henrys elders finally reacted; the information that was just ushered by the golden elder wasn''t known to them. And not even talking about the future destruction of the city, they weren''t also aware of the fact that Earth''s enemies were that reactive.

    "Are you asking us to abandons our own blood!?"

    "A century of work can''t be wasted like that!"

    "Are you insane, Golden!?

    The Golden family threw a disappointed gaze to his peers and began retorting with an unparalleled twisted logic.

    "Your blood and descendant won''t be abandoned¡­ They will sadly have to fuse with us and accompany us on our journey to immortality. The organization up there has no use for them, and with these pills, we can save them for a hopeless future.", a saddened tone was apparent in his speech. But an even harsher reality existed in his words.

    "As for your century of work, Merendinis, look at yourself and dare to tell me that it will be wasted. Your cultivation base has grown by leap and bounds. Your knowledge, far wider than before and the path that has opened to us, can lead us to achieve even grander deeds!", his voice boomed through the dimly lighted room.

    Even the otherworldly guests couldn''t help but agree inwardly with his thoughts. Cultivators have far bigger lifespan than mortals, and families could be gained back during those many years.

    "It is not me who is insane Henrys¡­ It is this filthy world, and don''t you dare to no agree with me on this one!", the anger he had buried in his heart resurfaced for a second. "New Casablanca is doomed, and its numerous citizens will soon live a life worse than death. But we can change that; we can bid our times and grow to the point where we wouldn''t need outsider''s help."

    "So¡­ Fellow Cultivators, are you with me in this journey?", the way he addressed the three other elders changed.

 Chapter 182 - Strong Aftertaste Part Four

    The three other elders knew the meaning of being called cultivators, and the three of them fell in deep thoughts after that. The reactions on their bodies and faces showed the internal struggle they were facing. They knew that it wouldn''t be as easy as the Golden elder had made it sound.

    Silence prevailed in the room, and only the faintest sound of breathing coming from the group of cultivators could be heard. The golden family elder sat in silence; his heart had long since calmed down after exposing his plan to his allies. He decided to give the other elders time to swallow the harsh truth before beginning the execution of their plans regarding Fell.

    As of whether they would choose to leave with him, that was something he couldn''t force on them. The four otherworldly guests stood in the same position, the gaze they interchanged clearly showed that they were talking with unknown means. The golden elder didn''t mind that, as what he had told them earlier was akin to a proposal.

    After the time it took to boil water, the rest of the elders could only agree with what he had proposed. Their path as cultivators meant much more to them than their families, and although they had difficulty swallowing the harsh truth. In the end, they could only accept it as they couldn''t change it.

    The power they had at hand was too limited, and their monetary resources were far from sufficient to move their numerous family members. With varying degrees of emotions, gritted teeth on the verge of breaking, and near mental breakdown from having to choose between survival and their descendant. They agreed.

    "When do we start?", asked the Merendinis elder with gorged red eyes.

    "Our family members and enemies are all downstairs. We will begin now.", he responded before taking a pill out of the wooden box. "The Blood Compendium Pill will unlock the potential inherent in your blood; while it will help us ascend to the second step, it will also cause us to enter a state where our own blood essence will be damage."

    "It will be akin to dehydration, and might even cause us to attain a near maddened state. This is where come our families, we will use the fact that they are our own descendants to absorb their blood essence.", he said matter of fact before throwing a pill in his mouth.

    As the pill entered his mouth, he couldn''t help but shudder as painful sting assaulted his senses. With a numbed tongue, the sensation of the nauseous liquid filling his mouth nearly caused him to throw up. But he pushed through and swallowed it without any hesitation.

    The armrest of his chair broke into splintered bits of woods, and his figure constantly shook from the demonic pill''s effect.

    The three other elders followed suit and sent a pill down their throat. One of the elders from the Henrys family couldn''t help but exhale a long sigh before consuming the pill.

    That sight made him seem as if he had aged dozens of years. And within that breath was contained the last bit of remorse he had for what he was going to do.

    A nauseous, metallic odor filled the dimly lighted room, and a cloud burst of vapor appeared in it. In the hidden veil of red caused by the reaction of the pill with their blood essence, the elders'' bodies were changing at a fast pace. The contents of the pills were nourishing the energy in their meridians. As it was aided with the burst of their blood essence, it was refined further beyond. Their cultivation base that was blocked at the top of the first step began making progress again, and with every little second that passed, was advancing to the second step.

    The otherworldly guests had, for long, stood up from the table and had distanced themselves from the four elders. Even if the four elders were far from being a danger to them, aided with the pill and the madness that would come with it, it was a completely different matter.

    A ghastly howl escaped from the veil, and what seemed like the voice of the golden elder resounded from it. A voice similar to a ghastly murmur escaped his thin lips. "Persist¡­".

    Even as their lifespan was reduced at a fast pace. Even when their hairs began turning grey, and started falling apart. Even as they felt their innards rot and turn into useless organs, they couldn''t stop now as that meant death. The dice were thrown, and now the gamble was on. Those that will survive this challenge will benefit from a tremendous breakthrough.

    The moment those pills entered their system. The only path to survival was to persist till their energy made its breakthrough. And when that happened, even if their body was only reduced to a sack of bones and skin, they could regrow back to the peak of their youths with their descendant''s blood.

    Their eyes turned into a bloodied crimson ball from the abnormal concentration of blood essence in their bodies. Their gritted teeth turned into powder as they fell off their mouths. Bone rattled with a macabre noise that even sent a chill in one of the guest''s spine. They were told about the effects of the pill. Before accepting the offer, they were also explained in detail what it would cause to their bodies and how dangerous it is. But hearing about it and seeing it was completely different.

    The hellish noises of bones aging at a fast rate could even scare the bravest of men.

    Yet even in this state that caused endless pain and suffering, they saw the golden family elder''s bony arm advanced toward the wooden box on the table. His hand grabbed dozens of those pills; during the entire movement, his bones trembled and shivered, and if it wasn''t for the massive influx of energy in his meridians, his body would have since long fallen apart.

 Chapter 183 - Strange Aftertaste Part Five

    The three other elders were unaware of the action of their brother. Their eyelids were since long shut down, and their minds entirely focused on directing the energy in their meridians toward the sea of energy in their dantians. The pain that traversed their minds and bodies was nearly enough to make them fall out of the realm of sanity.

    Visions of carnage assaulted their minds, and the boiling life essence in their body was nearing the brink of extinction.

    The process of this breakthrough had been sold to them by the golden elder as being nearly perfect. But now they couldn''t even regret beginning it as even a moment of inattention could end the little life in them.

    But even in that state, the golden family elder managed to move his limbs. He willingly threw the dozens of pills in his hand down his throat.

    The otherworldly guests nearly flew out of the room when they saw the action. As second steps cultivators, if they allied together, they could fend off a hundred individuals with power levels similar to the elders''. But with the massive ingestion of pills, an explosion of extraordinary range could turn the mansion into an inferno of blood essence.

    But strangely, they stood where they were, intrigued by what could happen. The otherworldly guests knew the risks of staying there. They took out several protective items in case something happened; one of them took out a round shield shaped like a turtle shell. Another one armed himself with a ball-shaped crystal the size of a fist, a cape, and sword.

    Those items radiated intense energy even without their activation and were nearly the most reliable protective measures they had at hand.

    After swallowing the pills, the reaction of blood essence burning intensified inside of the golden elder''s body. His skin dried out to the point where it looked like dried wood; his eyes had since long turned into black holes. But even in that state, the guests could notice the tremendous energy coursing through his meridians and veins.

    Due to the blood essence and pills, his energy had turned into a sea of red that gave off an ominous vibe. Due to the fact he was in the middle of a breakthrough, their collective senses easily pried the extent of his cultivation.

    Their heart thumped, and one of the otherworldly cultivators swallowed a mouthful of saliva. Although the quality of the golden elder was far from their level, the quantity that coursed through his meridians far surpassed them. Even if the energy in the dantian of the four-second step cultivator was added together, it would only add up to half of the golden elder''s energy.

    "What a mad man¡­", mumbled one of them.

    "If he survives this, he will turn into an individual stronger than us¡­", one of them said.

    They couldn''t help but fear what would be the result of the demonic breakthrough. One of them couldn''t help but add, "It only depends on the extent of his destiny¡­ The percentage of chance for his success is less than 5%¡­", yet even with his logical thinking. His tone contained part of the inner fear he was feeling.

    Then, resounded a screech inside of the red veiled room. The acute sound was similar to the roar a butchered pig would usher when his throat was being cut. Following the origin of the sound, they saw the Merendinis elder''s body in the course of breaking down.

    His wooden skin contained many holes and fissures, from which his energy leaked out. His life had long since left his body with that scream, and what was left was only a mass of energy that wouldn''t take long to disappear with an explosion.

    One of the guests flew out of the room, as he knew that any disturbance might turn into a chain reaction that would wipe out the mansion. Two of them followed suit, and the last one who was in the midst of leaving the room stopped at the doorstep. He saw the Golden family''s elder extend an arm, his body had long since turned into a monstrosity that couldn''t be described as human, and from that arm appeared a vortex that absorbed the rest of the Merendinis'' elder.

    "Madness truly turns humans into demons¡­ Or gods!", he said between a shocked gasp.

    He stopped at the doorstep, ready to depart at any moment. In that position, he could still see the Golden elder absorb the remains of the Merendinis cultivator; the meager amount of lifespan and blood essence was scooped along with the torrent of energy that resided in the mummified corpse.

    The otherworldly cultivator nearly threw up as the nauseous odor intensified, and he even had an illusion of a sea of blood appearing around the golden elder. From fear and disgust, his emotion shifted to astonishment as he saw that the man had absorbed everything without any sign of a backfiring explosion.

    His red energy was absorbing everything near it, and the two other elders were drawn to his position. Visions of upcoming events appeared flashed in his thoughts. It didn''t take long to become a reality. A repulsive noise resounded around the Golden elder, and the other two mummified elders turned into bits of broken flesh and energy that began revolving around the Golden elder.

    He couldn''t help but feel impressed by the man''s action. He even began doubting if this wasn''t his true plan, to consume his peers and attain the second step with a clean and swift betrayal. He didn''t know the answer, but this event caused him to engrave a mental note in his mind. To never trust that man, or else he might end up in the same position as those poor elders.

    Before long, the sole figure in the room was the past golden elder. The three other corpses had turned into nutrients for his collapsing body. The sea of energy in his dantian had grown to the past where an illusion had appeared around him. His eyelid cracked open, splints of his skin flew around him, and two red blackholes absorbed any light that neared his face.

 Chapter 184 - Through Blood And Bonds Part One

    "This feeling¡­", a voice spread in the room. "Power beyond what I thought could be achievable¡­ Yet this hunger, insatiable beyond what a mortal could ever feel!", the golden cultivator spoke with a devilish intent in his words.

    Although he had achieved what he wanted- having attained the second step through many difficulties-; an insatiable hunger had spread his corpse, and that feeling was intense to the point where he couldn''t contain himself anymore. Yet he didn''t hate that sensation as, it reminded him of something that had pushed him to this position, the hunger for power. Unrelated to morals or social status, this hunger for power was closer to a biological instinct.

    Something that had taken him from an ordinary family member to the elder position where his words were law.

    "Your failures will serve as my stepping stones¡­", he thought with a reminiscence about the three elders that had perished during the breakthrough. His pensive gaze moved toward the spots where their corpse had been just before he mercilessly absorbed every speck of their being.

    From there, his vision moved toward the otherworldly guest who stayed there.

    "Thanks for having waited for me.", he said with a ghastly smile, sending shivers run down the spine of the man he spoke with. His dry red eyes pierced through the void, and the otherworldly cultivator felt as if his blood and energy was going to jump out of his own body.

    Hopefully, the sensation disappeared the moment he rotated his cultivation base. His eyes glowed in azure-colored light, and his clothes began moving alone without any wind pushing them. His fear disappeared, and an aura of grandeur appeared around him before he shouted.

    "Of course, my fellow cultivator. I have given my word and have acted as a guard during your breakthrough. It seems that your body is currently lacking in blood essence, causing you even to misjudge me as a prey.", he added with a smirk on his face.

    A grin that wasn''t one appeared on the horrifying face of the Golden cultivator. His chest curled up, and he bowed slightly toward the man in front of him. The posture was crooked but was still recognized by the man who waved his hand to show that he didn''t care.

    "Your guests downstairs are waiting for your arrival.", his sentence was short. But the intent behind it caused the appearance of a vicious smile on the hungry elder.

    He took a step forward. His movement was slow, and even seemed that he was going to fall at any moment, but an air breeze traversed the room in an instant.

    Terror marked the face of the otherworldly guests. And his heart, painfully, tugged in his chest the moment he heard the elder speak from behind his back.

    "Let us go then. It isn''t polite to make them wait too much¡­"

    He turned around, his mind filled with horror from the strength showed by the elder, but on his face was an amiable smile that didn''t sell his internal state. He nodded and began following the ghastly elder in his steps.

    Fell had a grim expression on his face. The moment the elders attempted their joint breakthrough, he had felt the intense turmoil of energy in his surroundings.

    With eyes closed and senses that pierced his blood essence, he activated his blood perception and gazed at the numerous individuals that were in the mansion. He skipped the nobles surrounding him from his acute vision and was drawn to a large crimson dot that was on the higher floor.

    There he saw a twisted blood essence. Mixed with four origins, that screamed of hunger in his mind; the moment he saw the filthy blood essence, a nauseous sensation hit his mind, and he found himself obliged to stop his technique. His heartbeat accelerated to a mad pace inside of his chest, and his fearful thoughts worked swiftly as an image of the beast was drawn in his head. The creature was crooked, and the parts of its body were different, akin to a chimera.

    But that wasn''t all. Around of the ghastly, and nightmarish, creature was a sea of blood that revolved around it. That sea of blood was burning with a fiery intent that nearly burned Fell''s soul. The last thing he had seen in the illusion were three corpses that were engulfed inside of the sea. Their state, practically mummified, with cracked up skin that resembled dried up wood.

    It took him a few seconds to wash away the illusion. And it was only with the aid of the mantra of his soul cultivation technique that he was freed from the horrifying vision. His head turned toward Wind, and he wasn''t shocked at all to see that the young man had also felt the threat that had just appeared.

    The young official''s face was a far cry from before. His skin pale, and nearly transparent, clearly showing the terror he was feeling. A few guests had noticed their reaction, but apart from the few cultivators who were notified by the arrival of the elder, they couldn''t understand the reason for their reactions.

    The kid who had been lectured by Wind had a smug expression on his face. The arrogance he was forced to shelter was released, and he spitefully exclaimed with a joyful tone.

    "Looks like our elders are coming here to teach you a lesson."

    The pair of cultivator ignored his comment. Fell got up from his chair, and smacked Wind on the head to wake him up, the expression on his face showed Wind that what was coming over wasn''t something he could deal with quickly.

    "You''re gonna have to make a run for your life.", he said matter of fact without hiding his own fear. "The thing that is coming isn''t something I can face while protecting you. This is where we part.".

    His last sentence was short and served as, a desperate, farewell toward Wind. He preferred honestly over false bravado because he knew deep down that the hurdle he was going to face might take his life.

 Chapter 185 - Through Blood And Bonds Part Two

    Wind''s mouth opened. But no sound escaped from between his lips as, he wasn''t even sure about what to say, and simply stood where he was. His eyes were looking straight at Fell''s eyes. Before long, he managed to squeeze one sentence before departing.

    "You''re one hell of a great guy.", a crooked smile was on his face. Warped by the fear he was feeling, and he turned around and began leaving the venue.

    Fell couldn''t help but have his heart warm-up, and he took his brother''s word as cheering. "Yeah, I''m one hell of a great guy¡­", he mumbled under his breath.

    He turned around, and looked at the mass of guests with a saddened gaze. "Something nasty is going to happen here.", his voice boomed through the large ballroom. It was powerful enough to make the chandelier on top of the head move and managed to gather the attention of the many guests. On their face was puzzlement, and only a few cultivators began moving away the moment he heard the confirmation.

    "What do you mean, young hero?", asked a middle-aged man between two puffs of his cigar.

    "Whoever wants to keep his life intact. Leave!", his short speech showed the urgency of the moment.

    Fell trembled from hesitation. But just as he took out Soldier''s Fortune and wanted to scare them to leave, a sharp and eerie voice spread through the ballroom. The young cultivator''s heart skipped a beat, and just as he turned his head to look at the origin of the sound, one explosion after the other happened near him.

    With a quick spin, he managed to retreat a few steps away from the explosion. And was shocked, and disgusted, when he understood that he had misjudged the bang for something else. The nobles that had eaten at his table had turned into a mass of mangled flesh and ground bones that was traveling through the air.

    "Leaving now will only ruin the last entertainment of the night. Make yourself at home and enjoy this spectacle, my dear guests!", The Styx like fluid traveled through the air toward the man who was speaking.

    Screams of horror, and despair, resounded in the large ballroom. And a few guests were so paralyzed that they were nailed on their spots, unable to move an inch, and continuously shivering. A few guests threw up the content of the diner, while the rest began running with maddened steps.

    As the number of guests was quite high. A few, unfortunate, and unlucky individuals were stepped on during the mad escape, and their corpses were reduced to terrible states. Not even a few seconds had passed since the elder made his way to the ballroom, but panic had already taken place deep in the guests'' hearts.

    Numerous sounds akin to the earlier explosion happened. Fell''s head turned left and right, and without further thought, managed to understand the reason for the deaths. All of them were nobles linked to the four leading families; a few of the cultivators from the leading families came to the same conclusion. Their legs stomped on the ground as, they began leaving the ballroom in an even maddened state than the guests, since they were the current prey of the elder.

    At first, Fell was lost and couldn''t understand the reason for the familial butchering. But as the elder began absorbing one corpse after the other, through the great flows of red liquid, he came to understand that the twisted and lacking blood essence was recovering. Albeit very slowly, and with difficulty, the blood essence regrowth was a matter that shouldn''t be regrown with ease.

    Fell distanced himself from the mass of exploding individuals. And stood on higher ground on one of many decorative bumps on the ceiling, his senses gathered around the elder, and he confirmed the reason for the massacre with a swift analysis.

    "That man is the Golden family elder!?", he exclaimed as he sensed that the core of the blood essence was similar to the one from the other golden family members. "Yet his body contains the blood essence from the other three leading families¡­ What the hell happened upstairs!?", he was shocked by the discovery.

    "If I don''t stop him from absorbing every single member of the leading families. He will turn into an even bigger threat!", he thought in a precise manner. But he still didn''t move as he didn''t know how to stop him; from the way how the bodies were turning into a liquid from a distance, he feared that the man could do the same even during a fight.

    He stayed in the same position, hanging high on the ceiling, far from the senses of the elder. He hesitated for a few seconds, with the sounds of horror-filled screams and bodies turning into mashed pastes. The smell hitting his nostrils was strong enough to make a mortal faint, and a wave of dizziness assaulted his mind as he began thinking of solutions.

    Then, a sharp glint appeared in his pupil, and a self-deprecating, and grim grin appeared on his youthful face. "Hesitation leads to inaction¡­ And inaction leads to death!"

    His leg stomped on the ceiling, but no sound was produced, and his figure disappeared from the ballroom. His body, moving at an absurd speed and moving from death angles that couldn''t be seen by the elder. He reduced the distance that separated them in a few seconds, Soldier''s Fortune appeared in the air, drawing a semi-circular stroke in the air.

    ''Ghostly Stutter'' was swiftly activated in the run, making his movement even more unpredictable. The distance separating him from the elder was only a few steps. Steps that he took in silent a cautious manner, and in the last stomp activated ''Solary Dive''. His body dived in a motion akin to a rocket launched from a mortar, with Soldier''s Fortune turning into an unstoppable spear, the tip of his sword dangerously neared the neck of the elder.

    "And here I thought you had left the banquet I prepared for you."

 Chapter 186 - Through Blood And Bonds Part Three

    "Crap! I was noticed!?", thought Fell with an ugly grimace on his face. But it was too late, and his blow was the same as an arrow having already left the bow, impossible to retract it after being lunch forward.

    The tip of his sword, piercing through the air, advanced at an alarming rate toward the elder''s neck. But the monstrosity seemed prepared for the youth''s surprise attack and didn''t move an inch from his position. A corpse exploded, yet again, and one of the bloodied streams parted toward the back of the elder, swiftly parrying Fell''s blow before continuing forward to engulf him.

    The moment Fell felt the strength of the bloody streams against his sword. A terrifying feeling sank in his heart, and a sensation akin to being washed out in the middle of the ocean took over his body. He managed to shift his weight to his right leg, and using the parry''s strength, he executed a spin and managed to brush the attack to the side.

    Anger flashed in his mind from nearly being flooded by the nauseous blood attack. His blade drew a magnificent curve in the air, aimed another time at a weak point of the golden elder. Killing intent exploded, and Fell''s figure could be seen flying like a broken kite.

    He only stopped when his back collided with a crystal clear table; using the object behind him, he redirected part of his moment toward the ground, crack appeared on the floor as he executed a somersault. His body gracefully twisted in the air before landing on the table.

    A murderous gaze was on his face, and he shook the numbed hand that grabbed Soldier''s Fortune. But the feeling in his hand disappeared, and it was only when he controlled his hazardous blood flow that the numbing sensation disappeared. His youthful face turned grim, and the hand that grasped Soldier''s Fortune tightened; during this short time, dozens of nobles had exploded, turning into a sanguine stream of torn flesh and shattered bones.

    "What the hell is this fucker made off?", Fell cursed under his gritted teeth. Feeling that there was nothing wrong with his body anymore, he stepped forward.

    His figure turned into a ghastly whirlwind, speeding through the ballroom filled with blood and trampled corpse. During his approach, he couldn''t help but feel sadness fill his heart when he saw the apparent despair in the eyes of the deceased. His anger peaked, even more, when he saw a tiny figure lay on the floor; the little girl''s body was misshaped, and her small head had turned into a paste of red and grey color.

    A growl nearly escaped from the young cultivator''s throat. His heart rate sped as, his anger kindled his body and soul, and his blood coursed with the might of hundred stallions. A pressure surrounded his body, and his released sword intent surrounded his sword and body. Lightning sparked around him as his meridian was flooded with streams upon streams of energy.

    In his anger, he didn''t leave out any of his cards and ignite the full potential of his cultivation base. Body, Soul, and Energy appeared at the same time, unleashed to a degree he had never felt. A sensation of power and might course through his being, but no satisfaction nor gratification was felt from this success. And only a wave of livid anger had embodied his whole nature.

    What was strange was that in this maddened state. Fell felt that the angrier he was getting, the colder and calmer his train of thought was becoming. The dozens of corpses filling the floor in his road didn''t cause any change to his thoughts; his heart was bleeding with intense emotional turmoil, yet his mind was sharp and cold. The scene happening in front of him slowed down, and his senses collected every little action that occurred in the ballroom.

    A chair being pushed. A screech released from a man who walked on broken shards of crystal. The howl of the nobles filled with despair and resentment toward their own elders. His brain swiftly collected everything- Thoroughly and meticulously analyzed - Before turning potential plans that began filling his head. Many ways of engaging the elder manifested in his head, yet he chooses the most direct way.

    "Tonight, I will stop to nothing before getting making you feel despair!?", A rapid growl escaped from Fell''s throat. Under the particular state, he was under, Fell''s voice turned into a sharp soundwave that pierced through space and arrived right at the face of the elder.

    His last sentence was only released to blow the steam that had accumulated in his heart. Yet an unexpected event happened, and Fell saw with clarity the elder''s bloody stream surround him as the soundwaves made contact with his body.

    He couldn''t understand the reason for the strange action. But to the elder, that sound waves filled with Fell''s murderous sword intent had transformed into an illusionary sword that was aiming for his head. The illusion had been realistic to the point where his body instinctively used his newfound blood-related power to defend itself.

    All of this took quite a long time to describe. But from the moment Fell had made his sneak attack on the elder, not even a dozen of seconds had passed, and the ballroom was still filled with a large amount of escaping guests.

    The sole of his shoes turned red during the crossing of the distance between the elder and his sword. Soldier''s Fortune turned into a bright torch in the eye of the few who dared to look behind them. ''Solary Dive'' was activated between two swift footsteps, but as he took two steps, he executed ''Ghostly Stuttered'' and spun to the right; Dodging a bloodied stream of mangled flesh that was coming from behind him.

    But that didn''t stop him, and the moment the stream of blood passed a few inches from the tip of his nose, strength was focused on his foot, and he transitioned to ''Solary Dive'' skillfully.

 Chapter 187 - Through Blood And Bonds Part Four

    Boom- His figure crossed the remaining distance that existed between him and the elder. His sword drew dozens of semi-circular strokes in the air, and hidden in them were downward thrusts and upward slashes. The dancing blade only stopped for a split second when the elder took a step back, the two streams that had rushed to defend him had been turned into droplets that soiled Fell''s clothes with a crimson red color.

    The short pause didn''t take much to turn into a piercing thrust as Fell jumped forward. He relentlessly followed the elder, with his sword hand executing one sword strike after the other.

    Shock manifested in the elder''s heart as he couldn''t help but understand the origin of the man in front of him. How could someone like this appear from the Core; that place had been soiled and used by the main district for centuries, and the only reason why they hadn''t made it disappear was due to a few organizations. Organizations that still couldn''t approach the walls of the inner district, from fear of being decimated in less than a minute.

    The difference of strength and resources between the two places of the same city was high, to the point where one was a heavenly garden while the other was an earthly hell.

    The elder did his utmost in defending himself. But Fell relentless pursuit didn''t stop for even a moment; his sword drew many circular and semi-circular stroke in the path toward the elder''s weak points. His transmutation from soft to hard was done between every few moves. His rhythm was too complex for the elder to be able to adapt.

    After a few seconds of close quarters combat passed, the two opponents had since long exchanged more than a few hundred moves, and still didn''t manage to injure either of them. From the corner of his vision, the elder saw members of the leading families flee from the ballroom; their faces painted a sad image, an odd mixture of horror and incomprehension.

    Their hasty steps took them to the garden. Although not far away from the elder, the bodies stopped exploding into mists of broken bones and mangled flesh, after leaving the ballroom. The elder noticed that his precious nutrients had left his range, and anger flashed in a slightly rejuvenated face.

    The little pest in front of him couldn''t be any more annoying. The resilience of his body combined with the speed and sharpness of his attack and the radiating pressure of the sword made the elder sweat buckets during the fight. Although he wanted to take care of Fell in a clean and fast method, he feared that the nobles from the leading families would have enough time to leave the venue.

    "You little prick should curb your shitty enthusiasm!", the Golden family elder''s body had already recovered to the point where he looked slightly younger than before his breakthrough.

    The skin that looked like dry wood had grown back to being healthy and even had a tinge of red to it. It was the same for his hair, a head filled with blond hair rested on top of his shoulders. Due to his abnormal absorption of blood essence, every feature of his body contained a tinge of red in them. The only exception was his eyes that glowed in a crimson red light that revealed the sanguine thirst that had taken him.

    Fell responded to the Golden Elder with a downward swipe of his sword. The elusive weapon turned into a ghost, broke through the speed of sound, before reappearing a few inches from Golden''s knee. "Taking down his mobility will disable him from following them!", his thoughts transmuted into a sharp and deadly sword intent that gathered around his sword.

    It wasn''t unknown if it was Fell''s sword that was getting stronger or the elder''s mind who was wandering too much during the fight. But Fell''s blow his its target, and a clean line appeared in the middle of Golden''s leg. Thud!

    The sound of a leg hitting the marbled floor resounded. And a muffled grunt of pain escaped between Golden''s gritted teeth, yet the injury only stopped him for a second, and dozens of bloodied streams rushed toward Fell. One of them swiftly made its way toward the amputated limb, and promptly took it back to its original body.

    While the rest of the streams turned into a two meters high wave that washed everything in its passage, Fell retreated back, and using one of the many tables as a spring, he evaded the attack and disappeared in the ceiling.

    Golden stood in the middle of the bloodied ballroom. Corpses laid on every corner of the room, and the nauseous metallic odor of blood had taken place in every inch in the air. The smell of blood had mixed with the deadly flavor coming from corpses, and a rotten smell started coming out of a few bodies.

    The banquet had descended from a glamorous fantasy, to a baneful horror in less than a few minutes. A lot of guests knew that an entertaining event would happen later in the night. But never in their twisted mind occurred the thought of a malicious massacre happening.

    "Dad, Wh- what is going on with the elder?", said a brat with tears running down his cheek. His snot full face portrayed an ugly grimace of horror, and his mind had ingrained the image that had just happened in the ballroom.

    "Don''t talk, Jack, keep running!", responded a middle-aged man with blood ticking down his lips. He was one of the cultivators from the Golden family and had used a mysterious technique to avoid the elder''s absorption. But the price he had to pay, might not have been too different from being absorbed. If a scanner was passed on his body, one would notice that more than half of his internal organs had disappeared.

    Yet a determined gaze hung firmly on his face. And only when he looked at his son did it soften slightly, the survival of his son was worth much more to him than his own life.

 Chapter 188 - Through Blood And Bonds Part Five

    Golden could feel his blood related descendants escape from the mansion. His eyes looked at his skin, and anger flashed on his red pupils. Although his blood essence had recovered a lot, it still wasn''t perfect, and there were still a few defects to his regrown body. The left leg that he had to connect back had a somewhat empty sensation in it, and a quick look in its direction showed him that the skin there was much paler than on the rest of his body. The imperfections of his body made it difficult for him.

    "Hiding again, little mouse?", banter towards Fell escaped from his lips. His bloodied eyes darted left and right and searched every nook and cranny of the ceiling. But to no avail, as he didn''t get even a single speck of aura from the youth.

    Fell had since long shut down his pores, hidden his breath, and had even gone to the point of stopping his respiration. His first objective had been a slight success, and a few members of the leading noble families had managed to run away from the massacre. His hiding position wasn''t far from under the pathway that led to the courtyard, and as the majority of the escapee had darted there, he knew that Golden would surely do the same.

    He patiently waited with his eyes closed. His battle intent magnified his senses, and every small noise in the silent ballroom was heard with a crystal clarity. He heard a heavy footstep approach the pathway that led to the courtyard; albeit slow and hurried, he sensed that one in two steps wasn''t as heavy as the other.

    He knew that those sounds were produced by Golden. But nonetheless, he couldn''t be more cautious due to the fact that the opponent still didn''t reveal his technique apart from the control he had over blood.

    Then the footsteps stopped right in front of the pathway. Sadly, no direct angle was apparent to Fell for a hidden attack, and preparing the spatial seal couldn''t be done in the current situation. He could only wait to secure a deadly blow, or risk it and avoid being injured. He decided to wait as it served his goal of the stopping the assimilation of his family members.

    Golden gazed at the pathway with a smile that wasn''t really genuine. His face portrayed the calmness of a middle-aged man in the apex of his youth; if taken out of the horrid scene, he could even be said to exude a respectable and amiable feeling. Yet Golden''s twisted mind only thought about the lack of blood essence his body was facing, yet the hunger for blood in his mind didn''t stop his rational thoughts.

    "Fine, you win.", he exclaimed in a sigh. "Your annoying antics have gained my complete attention¡­ Your body is quite advanced in its cultivation, and the blood that courses through your vein must be quite nourishing!", a twisted grin drew itself on his face. A savage look appeared on his face and even started to radiate from his body.

    The crimson red of his eyes intensified, and an illuminating glow flashed a powerful light around him. Hundreds of sounds entered Fell''s ears; he opened his eyes in disgust as those sounds were very similar crawling and scraping noises that made a chill run down his spine.

    "What the f-!", he nearly spoke out loud. The bits and scraps of corpse all over the ballroom were creepily sliding along the marbled floor. Their slow, yet steady advance toward Golden gave the image a hellish vision that would forever be ingrained in Fell''s mind. The body part would detach themselves from the numerous bodies as if they gained consciousness, and make their way toward Golden.

    A terrible sensation overtook Fell as he felt that something terrible was going to happen. Although he managed to stop Golden from acquiring the blood essence of his family members, he couldn''t stop the man from scavenging the rest of the corpses. He didn''t know what would happen in case he absorbed them; his legs nearly stomped on the ceiling, sending him toward the position where the chunks of carcasses were going to.

    Thankfully he managed to stop himself and decided to wait patiently and see the next course of action of his opponent. Golden''s control of blood made it easy for him to have the terrain''s advantage, but Fell''s advantage laid in the fact that he was currently hidden. And he wasn''t ready to throw this minute leverage as Golden would use the corpses anyway.

    The bits of corpses traveled a fair distance and arrived near Golden. But contrary to what happened with the leading families'' bodies, the chunk of flesh didn''t turn into liquid before absorption; but formed a layer over Golden''s body. Sounds of squirming flesh expanding and contracting resounded through the empty ballroom, and before long, the layers upon layers of body parts turned into an armored defense surrounding Golden''s body.

    "Now, let me see if that blade of yours can cut through my defenses.", Golden''s voice spread through the ballroom, taunting Fell. But the young cultivator stood his ground and didn''t fall for the man''s provocation.

    "You think that you can hide from me!?", exclaimed Golden with a twisted grin, bits of blood and flesh were on his uncovered face. "Did you forget about my control over blood? I thought you were more intelligent than that¡­", with a thought from Golden''s mind. He rotated the blood in his body and ignited his blood essence. The armored flesh surrounding his physique turned ablaze, and Fell felt his heart rate augment in a split second.

    Fell''s well cultivated physique rotated without his own will. And his figure appeared in Golden''s mind with crystal clarity in his blazing red eyes.

    "Found you¡­", Golden added with a joyful tone before stepping forward. His feet left a deep dent in the marbled floor, and his body disappeared from its position, reappearing right behind Fell with a clenched fist ready to be sent forward.

 Chapter 189 - Unexpected Turnaround Part One

    Horror appeared in the pupils of the young cultivator. His mouth was agape, and he swiftly put strength in his leg to retreat from his position on the ceiling. But as his body began moving, he noticed that his speed was far from being enough to avoid the blow. A semi-circular glint appeared in the air, and Fell''s sword moved toward Golden''s fist.

    But due to the fact that he was hiding on the ceiling in a corner, the strength he transferred to his sword was too lacking to completely parry the incoming punch. Their attacks made contact with booming sounds, and Fell''s body was pushed toward the ground. Seeing that it was impossible to redirect the strength to the ceiling, he let the momentum of the attack shove him, and his body was pushed with even more strength away from Golden.

    The elder saw the youth''s split-second reaction, and couldn''t help but feel the need to kill him as soon as possible. He pursued Fell in his descend, using the ceiling as a spring to rebound toward Fell with tremendous speed.

    He crossed the distance between them in a split second and appeared right in front of Fell. The young cultivator''s body was only a few inches from the ground, but a lightning-fast swing connected with his sword. Thankfully, he managed to react in time and yet again used his sword a forearm to absorb the majority of the shock.

    "Brace yourself!", he screamed inside his head. He contracted his back muscles right before making contact with the ground. A tremor ran through the marbled floor of the mansion, and chips and bricks of material that made the floor flew in their surroundings. And before his body even managed to exhale a pained gasp of breath, dozens of fists blow appeared in front of him.

    "Parrying them is impossible¡­", his eyes saw the dozens of phantom punches approach his body. "Resist!?", he roared in his mind as his blood coursed through his veins.

    His muscles hardened one more time before the impact, turning into a material denser than steel.

    Da!Da!Da!Da!Da!Da- With the might of a machine gun, and the sound of a metallic drill. The fists collided with his body, sending turmoil through his muscles, bones, and spinal cord. Blood ticked down from his mouth, and he felt his internal organs shift from their places. But even with that amount of damage, with teeth gritted as hard as he could, he kept his guard high and resisted.

    A two meters deep hole was dug during the impact, and the suit he was wearing had turned into torn bits of soft tissues that hand on his body. And as the series of fists continued to arrive, the state of his figure turned shabbier over the attack. Through his gritted teeth, that had turned red, one could see blood tickle down his face.

    "How is he resisting this much?!", thought Golden inside of his fleshly armor.

    Yet his guard stood solidly in place. Although the attack from Golden was vicious, not leaving any frame of action to Fell, it still didn''t contain much energy and was mostly dealt through physical strength. To Fell, although the pain his forearm and back were filling were tedious, his body was capable of supporting far more pressure.

    "What is his body made of!?", he screamed in his mind as a seed of fear took place in his heart. "Resist as long as you want! But in this world, everything is fated to break!", he roared from between his lips.

    Suddenly, after hurling hundreds of attacks on Fell''s thin figure. Golden''s attack paused for a second, the armor covering his fists morphed, and spikes of crimson red colors covered his knuckles. A grin appeared on Fell''s face, and with the might and grace of a carp flying out of the water, his back rounded up and straightened back, slapping the ground under him.

    "Shut up!", two words escaped from the hole where Fell laid. A fiery, yet cold and deadly, sharp intent could be sensed from his words.

    The movement took him less than the fraction of a second to execute, and sent him flying straight toward Golden. His body then began spinning, and with Soldier''s Fortune in his hand, Fell''s body turned into a sharp, and deadly whirlwind. Due to the high speed of his rotations, the cutting edge of his sword appeared all over his body, and swiftly made contact with Golden.

    A screeching and acute cacophony resounded through the ballroom. And Fell''s body cut through the armored Golden with ease; aided with the abnormally fast rotation of his body, Soldier''s Fortune cut through the armored Golden with ease. As if the abnormally hard armor had only been soft butter.

    Golden felt a deadly sword intent invade his body. The fear that had taken root in his heart surfaced, and he tried to retreat in panicked steps. "I can''t beat him like this!", he thought with a pale face under his armor.

    The acute and eerie noise that was similar to a circular saw came to an end. And Fell stood on top of the elder''s armored shoulder''s, with Soldier''s Fortune deeply embedded in Golden''s torso. A blade injury, deep and long, ran from the top of his left shoulder. It cut through the human''s softest bone, the clavicle, and continued down the rib cage before stopping near the thigh.

    "How?", thought the elder as his eyes turned hazy for a split second. Blood spilled down his lips, and rain of red dots appeared from above dying Fell''s head red. The origin of the red rain was the elder''s injury, and it took him more than a few seconds of haziness to recover from the shock.

    His energy ran through his meridians and traveled toward his torso where it stopped the bleeding. Fell breathed roughly as the move had expanded a vast amount of his energy, yet even with a tired expression on his face, his eyes glinted sharply and his sword moved.

 Chapter 190 - Unexpected Turnaround Part Two

    The bladed weapon drew a semi circular trajectory in the air, and with a snake like viciousness, darted forward towards the skull of Golden. The elder''s energy felt a void inside of him. After stopping the bleeding, the energy expenditure was too vast and his meridian had dried.

    He ducked to the left, avoiding Fell''s sword tip in the last moment. A gash opened in his cheek, and before he even had time to curse, he had to avoid dozens of sharp thrusts.

    Fell stood on top of the armored Golden. His arm turned soft as his sword flew forward with lightning fast might. As Golden evaded the deadly blow with difficulty, he tried to throw Fell out of his position, but it was to no avail. And the youth''s feet seemed to have grown roots over the armored flesh.

    While dodging, he did his utmost in drawing energy from his dantian. But his actions were slowed down by Fell''s relentless attacks and took him much more time than he had expected. Fell was aware of that, due to their bodies between close, he could sense with crystal clarity the energy that was being spurted from Golden''s energy core.

    He stood his ground and kept trying to finish the fight as soon as possible. Even if his blow missed, the deadly intent in them still forced Golden in a defensive stance. After his sword nearly pierced through his skull dozens of times, Fell shifted his weight on his left leg and hurled a devastating kick toward Golden''s chin.

    The elder had been concentrated on the black haired youth''s sword, and the shot had been unexpected from him, appearing right from a dead angle under his armored flesh. It swiftly connected, and sent a tremor inside of Golden''s skull. The elder''s figure began falling down, his head rung with bells, and his vision blurred as Fell''s figure turned vague and hazy.

    Blood filled the elder''s mouth, and he took two steps back while Fell landed on the floor. As soon as his leg touched the floor, the ground under his legs turned into powder as his figure dashed forward. He broke through the speed of sound and instantly reappeared in front of a dazed Golden.

    The elder didn''t have much time to react as he saw a sharp glint appear in front of him. He instinctively raised his forearm and guarded in front of him while sending the energy he had managed to conjure in front of him.

    -Clank!- The sound of a hammer smiting steel resounded. Both opponents took a step back from the backlash of the confrontation.

    They roared, and both opponents took a step forward. Their emotions and ambition filled their bodies as they gave everything they had in their next blow. Golden''s armored flesh glowed with a burning crimson color; his dantian acted as an opened dam with nearly all of his energy flooding his body.

    Fell was half a step faster. Little Gold could feel the pressure Fell was facing through their link and acted in his own stead. Sparks appeared around Fell''s figure, and the majority of the lightning based energy coursed through Fell''s arm before coating his sword.

    Soldier''s Fortune black metal glinted for a second before turning gold in an instant. The temperature surrounding Fell spiked, and the smell of burned charcoal hit their nostrils.

    Although Fell had been faster to conjure his energy, Golden was the first to send his attack. The flesh surrounding his body morphed and moved along his body toward his right fist. A sharp drill condensed on his arm, the macabre flesh sent a chill course through Fell''s body.

    Fell''s eye squinted, and rage took over his being as his hand wrapped around his sword with a grip of steel. "Coward!", the word escaped from Fell''s throat and turned into a vicious bark.

    Golden''s action of soiling the masses of corpses, and using them as means of attack and defenses had magnified Fell''s anger by tenfolds.

    "Today, you die!", Golden''s eyes conveyed his murderous intent, and his spear-like drill was sent forward. It rotated during its travel and generated an incredible power that was aiming to grind Fell to bits.

    Fell''s fierce sword intent alimented the lightning energy that coated his sword ¡ª he chopped twice with his sword, with the might of the son of thunder.

    Their attacks connected. Darkness took over the ballroom as every speck of light was absorbed by the singularity that manifested when their attack connected. Time came to a standstill where both opponents'' existence was linked in a mysterious way. Their fates, their destinies, and future inexplicably intertwined during this moment of life and death.

    Their minds were also connected, and Golden''s thoughts appeared in Fell''s head during the special moment. It was as if a path had opened up between their soul, just before the double-edged sword of destiny decided the victor of the vicious brawl.

    "I just need to finish this brat¡­ Absorb him, and flee this city before disaster strikes. Die! Die! Die!", the barks viciousness made Fell understand that those were the thoughts of Golden.

    Fell felt a thug in his chest during this strange moment; sadness took over his soul, and his life in the Core resumed in front of his eyes. The misery of the citizens there, the violence that had taken place in the heart of everyone, the constant darkness that welled in every street corner. The wave of negative thoughts washed his mind, and he saw himself through his memories.

    A toddler, no bigger than a four year old boy, but he knew that he was far older than that in the scene and that it was only due to the malnutrition caused by his growth in the Baby Cemetery.

    "What did they do to deserve this life?", he asked puzzled by his own question. He saw the frail child run through narrow streets filled with scraps of rusted metal, the floor filled with residues of old constructs, garbage and syringes.

 Chapter 191 - Unexpected Turnaround Part Three

    His life continued, and even with his age advancing, his figure didn''t change by much. Filth plastered all over his body, and clothes in such poor state that they didn''t even hold in place -Only held together by bits of adhesive tape he had found- Yet the child''s face portrayed eyes of rare purity.

    "What did they do deserve this path?", the same question resounded in his head before the image disappeared.

    Sadness and sorrow had taken hold of his soul, and the fight with Golden had completely disappeared from his thought. Time''s hourglass stopped moving, and with Fell''s hold on reality vanished through a smokescreen.

    "They told me it was destiny¡­", his own voice resounded in his head. "The nobles are kings, while we are just the defects of this world."

    Image of residents of the Core appeared one after the other; their faces and bodies portrayed the honesty of their life, injured and disfigured by fate. He saw the viciousness in their faces, and the brutality of their action, but could even see the content of their heart. Their resentment from losing to fate, and their hopes, yearning for the future.

    Deep in their souls, they wanted to break the circle of viciousness. But with their past, present, and future stolen and murdered by the fate of the world, they found themselves only able to do the same to their peers.

    Fell''s sorrow intensified, and his heart sank further and further away from the fight. Losing focus in the middle of a battle was said to be stupidly dangerous, but what he was feeling and seeing had been a truth his heart and mind had concluded a long time ago. What was happening now was only a reminiscence his adrenaline-boosted mind had made resurface.

    Completely oblivious to that, he sank in the soft and mellow part of his being even further. Yet even as if he felt that his heart couldn''t feel sadness this intense, it didn''t stop and continued. He felt as if his heart was going to explode and even felt his flesh and bone rot.

    He felt a thug in his back and turning his neck; he saw a horrifying amount of corpse behind him.

    "Eh¡­", he sighed, "Have I already killed this much in my life?". The thought filled in sorrow only made his mood worsen.

    There he hit rock bottom, and the light in his eyes disappeared from a moment. Suddenly a transition happened in his soul, and the sadness and sorrow that had taken place in his being transformed. -Thud! Thud! Thud!-

    His heart nearly beat thrice in an instant. Something lit up inside him, the image and thought he was having served as fuel for it. That thing was rage, rage toward the world, and destiny. A man appeared in front of him; Fell knew that the person who appeared in his mind was his personification of fate.

    Livid wrath was directed to the figure. His anger, and burning rage, lit up the darkness surrounding him and the man''s figure appeared as clear as daylight. It was Golden.

    "It''s all-", he mumbled through his teeth as his eyes glowed. "It''s all-", he repeated with insanity taking over his mind.

    "It''s all your fault!", as that thought flowed in his mind. Time property resumed as Golden''s figure, in reality, replaced destiny''s manifestation he was seeing.

    Fell''s sword, coated with murderous sword intent, and enhanced by Little Gold''s lightning, turned ablaze in an instant fueled by an out of world fury.

    Golden''s heart stopped beating in an instant when his eyes crossed the gaze of the youth in front of him. A vision of his body, headless and dismembered, appeared in his mind with clarity. He washed the premonition out of his mind, and squeeze every drop of energy contained in his body.

    But it was to no avail, and Fell''s sword cut through Golden''s drill with ease. The first chop dismembered the spear shaped drill, and the arm that was under it fell on the floor with a thud. The second chop left Fell''s hand the next moment his first attack was launched, and lightning sparked as his energy spiked during an instant. His black hair rose in the air, and his muscles bulged to an abnormal size as Fell squeezed every speck of power that existed in his body.

    One line appeared in the ballroom. Cutting through everything in its path, pillars were cut in half, stairs didn''t resist its advance, and even a wall of reinforced steel had to bow down after its passage.

    In the air, a head soared high and rebounded softly on the ceiling before falling down. A long exhale escaped Fell''s lips, and with it disappeared part of the wrath that had taken his soul. His hair softened before laying softly back on his bare shoulders.

    Golden head hit the ground, but his dismembered body stood in its place, seemingly forever assuming his posture of defeat. Seconds passed quietly, and the armored flesh coating Golden physique turned to rot in an instant. His body turned into a horrid pool of pus and blood.

    Fell calmly gazed at what was left of his opponent. His mind pondered on the vision and mirages he had seen during the fight, and he couldn''t help but take a step forward and viciously stepped on the laying head on the ground. Golden''s face was plastered with the vicious expression he had during the fight, and his expression showed that he had died in an instant. Unaware of his own loss, and oblivious to his own death.

    Splurge!- A frightening sound resounded through the ballroom. And Golden deceased head turned into a mess of grey matter than laid on the bloodied floor of the ballroom.

    Fell drew one last long exhale before finally calming down. He couldn''t help but regret his action when his head looked down; he was barefooted. He took out a bottle out of his spatial pocket, drank several mouthfuls of the crystalline liquid and cleaned the filth out of his body.

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 Chapter 192 - Unexpected Turnaround Part Four

    After a minute, he was dressed in casual martial attire of grey color and had thrown out of the broken down suit he was wearing during the fight.

    Applause resounded from his left. Soldier''s Fortune appeared in his hand, and he turned around, ready to attack at a moment''s notice. There he saw a man with hands raised, applauding, and he gazed at Fell with unhidden admiration in his eyes. His eye moved toward the corpse of Golden, and not a speck of emotion appeared in the man''s face.

    Fell couldn''t help but look suspiciously at the man in front of him. His mind worked dozens fold as he searched through his memory, but it was to no avail, and he came to the conclusion that he had never seen the man in front of him.

    Pressure condensed around Fell, and a sharp light glinted in his tired eyes showing that he still had battle intent in his being.

    "No need to be aggressive, I''m not your enemy.", the man said in a matter of fact tone.

    "Who are you?", responded Fell. Who was still suspicious about the man''s origin, and didn''t hide it at all.

    "I''m not an Earthling.", he explained before continuing. "My name is Khortar, and I come from the Esodis Clan. I was a guest elder in that man''s family.", he began explaining with an amiable expression on his face.

    Fell was puzzled by the man''s explanation as he had never heard any of those clans. That wasn''t surprising at all as his knowledge about the civilization living in the universe was nearly inexistent. But the fact that guests elder existed in the noble families was a fact known to many, and Fell was aware of that; from the man''s tone, he knew that it was the truth.

    "What do you want?", retorted Fell with a less aggressive tone.

    "I saw the entirety of your fight, and-", the otherworldly cultivator began explaining before being cut by Fell. "Why didn''t you help him, aren''t you guys allies?"

    The guest from the golden family smiled as he heard the question. He was clearly in a good mood and didn''t take the youth''s questioning tone at heart. "Well, you can''t really say we were allies. Let''s compare our relationship to a strict business pact. Nothing more, nothing less."

    "A businessman¡­", repeated Fell with doubt in his heart. He gazed a the man, and couldn''t see specks of a business man''s aura, the likes he had seen in New Casablanca.

    A burst of laughter escaped from the man''s throat, and he couldn''t help but see the youth with odd eyes. Never in his life had he been associated with a businessman, in his planet power was necessary before fore taking any business activity.

    "Sorry for that.", he added while wiping a tear from his lips. Fell couldn''t help but gaze at the man with an even stranger look, the oddness and sense of displacement coming from the man were far worse than his own when he went to the Core. And he found himself interested in life outside of Earth.

    "So, you came from outer space?", he asked with interest in his eyes. His youthful innocence took over his mind, and this time there was no hostility in his tone ¡ª only an unquenchable thirst for knowledge about the other civilization.

    The man nodded with a smile on his lips. And Fell began asking one question after another, some were interestingly sharp from the point of view of an Earthling, while others were plainly stupid, causing the man to fall into another fit of laughter.

    "What do you guys breathe?"

    "Do you have poverty on your planet?"

    "Do your species only have males or are there any females up there?"

    "Do you guys also drink water?", the man responded to this question in an instant. "Everybody needs water, nearly every species in the universe. Except for a few special one need water to live."

    "You''re an interesting kid. Why don''t you come to see with your own eyes?", he added with a queer tone in his speech. "You can start by coming to my clans. You''ll found an answer to everything you''ve asked for.", he added with a wink.

    The young cultivator from Earth fell in deep thought and pondered whether he should go with the man or not. His senses told him that although the otherworldly cultivator wasn''t an enemy, he still wasn''t sure if he could fully trust him. Especially now that the man had seen through every card he had at hand during the fight.

    Not only that, he still found it odd that the man didn''t partake in the fight. As a businessman, fidelity is a significant factor when dealing with the client. Yet those reasons were only minor to his thoughts as, Fell yearned for freedom more than anything. He knew that following the man would be equal to taking a path that was already drawn, and he was sure as a stranger to the universe going to his clan would result in his being confined by many rules. And to him, those rules would be the same as throwing away his cherished freedom.

    "Let me give you a piece of important information, fellow cultivator.", the man changed the way he called Fell. And a serious expression appeared in his face. "You have caused great waves through this city, and the other guests didn''t wait long before selling information about you to Earth''s enemies."

    "I am saddened to tell you this. But in less than a few days or even hours. This city will no longer exist on the face of your planet."

    The information dropped like a bomb in Fell''s ears. And he nearly tumbled on his knee as his vision turned fuzzy, he had been thinking that the city was going to switch to a new page. But now, he had learned that an even more significant hurdle was making its way toward his hometown.

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 Chapter 193 - Unexpected Turnaround Part Five

    A sharp glint appeared inside of Fell''s pupil. His face darkened, and Soldier''s Fortune appeared in his hand, the rage and wrath that had died down with the death of Golden resurfaced in an instant.

    "What did you say?", he said through gritted teeth. "What do you mean by this city will cease to exist?!", killing intent wasn''t hidden and could clearly be expressed through his words. And the otherworldly cultivator couldn''t help but swallow a mouthful of saliva.

    The youth in front of him wasn''t even a second step cultivator. But the pressure he radiated was equivalent to a second step cultivator. He silently looked at the young man and thought cautiously about what he was going to say. Although he didn''t fear a battle against the youth, he was fully aware that if the man failed to kill him, the next time they met, he could easily be overpowered.

    He looked at the deceased Golden and remembered that the man had attained a level nearly similar to his own after his breakthrough. And although he didn''t have the time to solidify his cultivation, thus becoming quite unstable. The fact that Fell had beaten Golden couldn''t be denied at all.

    "The attack will arrive soon. From the ground, masses upon masses of mutated fierce beasts will trample your city."

    "From the sky, one bomb after another will drop. And the shield surrounding the city will disappear from only a few efforts."

    "The only good news is that the probability of a cultivator appearing is low. Yet even with just the two threats from above, the ground will be leveled, your sturdy buildings won''t resist for a long time. I can assure you that with your current strength, there is absolutely nothing you can do save your hometown.", he sighed before finishing his explanation.

    Fell trembled with more intensity. Each threat caused him to grip his sword harder and harder, and his tortured mind through an internal turmoil that nearly caused him a mental breakdown.

    A saddened gaze appeared on the otherworldly cultivator, and he couldn''t help but think inwardly. "This is the sad reality of this world. Without enough strength, you can''t protect anything, and you will only attract trouble to those dear to you."

    With eyes closed, Fell felt waves of nausea assault him, and his leg nearly failed him. "He said it is my fault¡­ I attracted too much attention from Earth''s enemies¡­", he opened his eyes. The white of his eyes had turned red. With many blood vessels exploding, giving him a grim constitution.

    He silently looked at the man in front of him for a long time.

    "What If I leave now? Will this city be safe?", he said with a tone filled with hope.

    The otherworldly guest looked at Fell, and his eyes flashed with mysterious intent. "If I tell him that he only need to follow me for the city to avoid being destructed, my plan could be achieved¡­", he pondered on whether he should take the risk or not. "But, our relationship would be based on a lie. And if he ever comes back here and learns the truth, he could turn against us, and I can only imagine how dangerous he will get with dozens of years of experience."

    Fell continued looking at the man, his face yearning for an answer that could resolve his problem. Deep down, he knew that the matter couldn''t be as easy as that, but he still wanted to hear the man tell him that leaving could solve the problem.

    The man opened his lips, and his voice resounded through the empty ballroom that had served as a battlefield. Each word from the man-caused Fell to take a step back; the youth felt as if dozens of sharp knives were piercing through his heart. He stood silently, with a grim expression that showed his hopelessness, and before long, a tired sigh escaped from his throat.

    "Thanks for the offer, fellow cultivator. But I will stay here and do my utmost in protecting what I can. This might be a stupid action that will probably result in my own death, but this is something that I''m entitled to do, or else I''ll regret for the rest of my life.", Fell said with a down to earth, and matter of fact tone that made the man look at him with another look.

    He felt as if the youth in front of him aged in an instant, and saw the terrible weight that rested on his shoulders. "What a pity¡­", he thought as the impression he had of the youth rose in his heart. "If he happens to survive, he will turn into dangerous chess in this board that will stop at nothing before their destruction!", he pondered while gazing at the figure of the youth in front of him.

    With hopes crushed, and with his back against the wall, Fell enclosed everything inside of his heart and consolidated his determination. Even if it could result in his own death, and it could also be said that the possibility of saving anyone was closer to less than one percent. He still wanted to stay and fight to the bitter end.

    He knew that if he even fled away from this predestined battle. He will end up hating himself for the rest of his life; that was without taking account of the damage his cultivation would take. It wouldn''t be a surprise if, in his depressed state, his progress in cultivation turned into a snail pace. And from a passionate genius who stopped at nothing to advance, he would turn into a saddened man who will only think about the past with a bitter after taste.

    He knew that in the later, he would end up taking his own life or attempt a dangerous action that wouldn''t be less suicidal than the first option. If he would end up dying in both possibilities, why not choose the first option and live rightfully with clear consciousness.

 Chapter 194 - Gathering Of Strength Part One

    Seeing the resolve in the young cultivator''s eyes, Khortar, the otherworldly guest, gazed at Fell with admiration apparent in his face. He had seen many individuals mutter empty promises that only ended up in the water, but the man in front of him was different. And the resolve hidden in his eyes couldn''t be faked. He was truly ready to bet his being to save his city.

    "I can only wish you the best of luck, my friend. I''m sure that destiny will make us meet again if you survive this calamity!", he exclaimed before bowing slightly. His hand turned into fists that he clasped together; the gesture was different from a martial salute, but Fell could still sense its meaning and understand it.

    Fell couldn''t help but nod silently, he reproduced the man''s gesture and turned around to leave the venue. If he wanted to maximize his chances of success, he needed to prepare himself, and more than everything prepare the city and its citizens.

    But just as he was going to leave, he heard a sound of an object splitting the air with a trajectory directed toward him. Just before he turned around, the object fell on the ground behind him, and he heard Khortar''s fleeting sentence.

    "As a gift to seal our friendship, I will leave this artifact in your stead. Take good care of it, and I sincerely hope it will help you survive this calamity!", he felt the man''s sincere intention and couldn''t help but crack a small smile before looking at the object. "Remember fellow cultivator, even if your back is against a wall survive, and wait for the opportunity to come back¡­", the last part of his speech came from a far away distance. It sounded like a distant whisper softly brushing Fell''s ears.

    Fell''s vision focused on the object on the ground. He swiftly identified that it was a short sword; he swiftly crouched down and grabbed the tiny sword. The moment his hand touched the weapon, he was prepared to feel a cold sensation as the sword seemed to be constructed with a strange alloy. But he was surprised to feel a certain warmness conducted to his fingertips from the bladed weapon.

    The blade''s length wasn''t bigger than his hand, and its thickness was twice the size of his index finger. He fiddled with the small sword in his hand for a few seconds and couldn''t help but come to the conclusion that it was a throwing type of weapon.

    "This will come in handy. Although throwing pebble can serve as a long distance weapon, this can help augment my strength in a direct manner.", he bowed one last time toward the direction Khortar had left from. He began leaving the ballroom with hurried footsteps.

    He arrived in the garden, and saw the numerous corpse that were laid on the floor, and couldn''t help but stop for a second before shutting the eyes of many corpses. Their gaze still contained the horror they had seen before exhaling their last breath, forever passing away. He didn''t know any of the individuals, but couldn''t help but heavily relate with them.

    In the end, humans were social creatures that relied on emotions to sympathize and relate to their kins. Fell felt a thud when he saw the loneliness and despair that their bodies contained even after death.

    "You have been avenged. Lay here in peace, I''m sure many of you won''t regret dying here tonight if you knew what was coming¡­", he thought before resuming his departure with haste in his footsteps.

    His figure disappeared from the macabre venue. Not long after that, he arrived at the entrance of the building owned by the nobles. His senses detected that a large group of individuals was positioned outside.

    As soon as his legs stepped out of the door, his eyes saw a large group of cars surround the entrance. Many MechSuits were positioned between them. MechSuit sized rifles were grasped by their armored gauntlets, and his eyes rested on a familiar armored man.

    "Oh, they are here!", he exclaimed as he was reminded of the police assaulting them he had met in the factory. He raised his hands, and waved it toward the golden colored MechSuit in a friendly manner.

    Pow!- The moment his hand moved, a bullet pierced through the air and crossed the distance toward him in the blink of an eye. Instinctively, his hand moved and moved to counter the attack. Soldier''s Fortune appeared in the midst of the movement, and the bullet was swiftly cut in half. Anger welled in his heart and Fell nearly cursed out loud, but he managed to swallow his word as he needed their help.

    Yet someone wasn''t as calm as Fell, and loud roar resounded in their surroundings.

    "Who the fuck dared to shoot on my brother!?", the loud roar was muffled by a helmet. A mechsuit''s engine roared, and a golden colored MechSuit appeared next to Fell.

    Pssht!- The sound of depressurizing air escaped from the helmet, and a face appeared underneath the golden colored armor. It was Johny.

    "Yo, Fell.", added the man without turning his head toward the latter. "Looks like you''ve been doing well!", he added before looking at the group of armed cops with a threatening gaze.

    "Now which one of you, motherfuckers, dared to shoot a bullet toward my dear brother?", he repeated his question with an even more threatening gaze. Fell couldn''t help but have his heart warm-up, and he couldn''t help but think that the man was even fiercer than before. "Or does his temperament burn even more when he protects a friend?", he mindlessly thought.

    "Calm down Johny, this might just be a mistake!", a calm and composed voice resounded. And another MechSuit approached the pair with heavy footsteps. "Still¡­ Those kinds of mistakes aren''t allowed to be reproduced!", even with an amicable tone, the leader of the Assault Team showed a hidden threat through his words.

    "Fell, if you''re here, it just means that you''ve taken care of Golden?", he added a rhetoric question before continuing. "Mind explaining what happened there?"

 Chapter 195 - Gathering Of Strength Part Two

    "That bastard turned mad and began crazily killing everyone. Especially his own family member and the members from the three other leading families.", he explained before adding. "But he''s dead now."

    Silence took place in the street. And a peal of weird laughter resounded from behind the cars, the laughter was eerie and sent a chill down the spine of many cops. Fell focused his vision and understood the reason behind the strange event.

    He saw a man. His luxurious cloth was soiled with red patches, and Fell recognized the man as being one of the members of the leading families. On his face was a hideous expression, and a crooked smile had taken place on his lips. Streaks of tears coursed on his cheeks, and he laughed in a crazy manner while repeatedly muttering.

    "That bastard paid the price¡­", his eyes gazed at the sky. And before long, his head moved, and his vision turned Fell before he bowed deeply with tears on his face. He knew that not only had the youth protected them from the mad elder, and he even managed to get revenge for his deceased clan members.

    During this sad and horrific event, not only had he lost his wife and son. He nearly died at the hand of his own clan elder. The traumatic experience will forever stay in his mind, but now that the elder had been killed, he could finally turn the page.

    This man wasn''t the only one to act like this. At his side, in numerous places of the street, were hidden survivors of the mad ballroom. All of them, without any exception, bowed deeply in the direction of Fell. Their voices joined together as they expressed their gratitude to their savior.

    "Thanks.", most of them only let a single word escape from their lips. But the gratitude and respect they had, in their hearts, toward the youth rose higher than the so-called respect they had for the mad elders. Whatever they had felt toward the youth during the ballroom, be it contempt or annoyance, had swiftly disappeared ¡ª replaced by gratitude and benevolence.

    Seeing the whole scene, a few members of the police couldn''t help but doubt their eyes. Where they really the same nobles that had ordered like a servant; were they even the same human being as before. They say that a horrifying experience can change people down to their core. For the nobles, especially those from the leading families; This experience had turned their biggest pride into the cause of their own deaths.

    Those who didn''t survive the grasp of the mad elder Golden were turned into nourishment for his lacking blood essence. While those who survived were akin to a caterpillar''s metamorphose, and most of them threw their identities as leading family members the moment they left the bloodied venue.

    An incredible transformation had taken place in their psyche, and without doubt, all of them turned into better human beings. Of course, that didn''t mean that they were ''bad'' people among them. It merely meant that they took the first steps toward finding their true selves. Far from the shabby and lacking personality, they had been thought to show for the majority of their lives. Yet the horrific price they paid wasn''t far from being equal to their gains.

    Fell gazed at them and knew for sure that those individuals would turn into better members of society. His heart tugged in his chest, and an ugly grimace appeared on his face as he thought about what they would all face in the upcoming days.

    He braced himself and stepped forward with resolve marked in his eyes. Seeing the change in the nobles had further kindled his resolve to save his city.

    And even if he had to turn into a bloodthirsty demon in the eyes of the citizens. He would gladly do so to save their lives.

    "Everyone!", his voice boomed through the street. He used the strength of his physique, with a few wisps of heaven and earth energy, and managed to spread his voice far away. The word traversed the many streets that constituted the central district, and everyone heard the youthful yet determined voice.

    "My name is Fell Pluck, and I have an important new to tell everyone in the city.", the individual in the street saw his act. And couldn''t help but look at him in a strange gaze. They couldn''t help but try to think about the reason for his speech. But as the hero who saved the higher-ups of the city from the nobles'' families, they couldn''t help but focus on him.

    Everywhere in the central district of New Casablanca, ears focused their attention on the youthful voice.

    "This city will be attacked in a matter of days. I''m afraid it could even be hours.", he paused for a second a left the citizen to swallow the truth. "Right now, as I''m speaking to you guys, hordes of vicious beasts are making their ways toward our beautiful city. The ground will be filled with hundreds upon hundreds of mutated beasts of many shapes and sizes."

    "The sky will be bombarded with weapons of strength that I can''t even imagine. The Earth has many enemies, and the cultivation era didn''t only bring benefits to our planet. Destiny has chosen to wipe out our city from the face of Earth."

    Everyone stood still, silent, and didn''t utter a single word. Many thought that the person speaking could be a prankster, but Fell''s soul cultivation came to play and managed to persuade the birth trust in the heart of many. Yet a lot of the higher-ups knew that Earth was waging war with a tremendously powerful civilization, and those individuals were the ones focusing the most on Fell''s speech.

    "Fleeing is a possibility, but this city and those inside it won''t manage to survive this calamity. I, Fell Pluck, promise that I will do my utmost in defending this city. Please, everyone, join your hands with me, and let''s prepare ourselves to defend against the worst!"

 Chapter 196 - Gathering Of Strength Part Three

    His voice reverberated through the entire city. And what followed his speech was complete silence; in the street where he was, the individual there stood with mixed expressions on their faces. But none of them spoke for a long time.

    Fell couldn''t help but think that most of those individuals would flee in fear, and that wouldn''t be shocking, especially when he didn''t leave out any information about the danger of the incoming attack. If he was in their feet and didn''t possess any power to shift the balance, he might also have left the city in a hurry.

    The first one the react was the Police Assault team led by Walter. The middle-aged man coughed, and with an awry smile under his helmet, exclaimed with a loud voice. "Not like this isn''t already our job, but we''re in. I can promise that every single MechSuit available in this city will be ready to battle."

    Fell nodded with a smile, even if he had already expected that Walter wouldn''t be the kind of man to cower in fear of death.

    A voice resounded from the sky. "Hahaha, Young Hero. I''ve heard your call, and I can only say that my old bones are excited to fight at your side.", the old general made his appearance from the sky. His golden and white, colored MechSuit landed with a loud thud on the floor. Ever since his fight with Fell, he had been living quietly in his courtyard; and had retired from the familial matter of his clan.

    The moment he heard Fell''s voice. A shiver traversed his body, and he donned his MechSuit in an instant before leaving in a hurried flight.

    "Count us in, Young Master!", many nobles that were in the macabre ballroom took a step in.

    "Our lives are owed to you!"

    "If you dare risk your lives, then we only ought to follow!"

    "Through mountains of fire and seas of steels!", a booming voice cumulated from the many nobles washed the street. It wasn''t only the cultivator from the noble families that had spoken, but nearly every single member. Even the teens had grim expressions on their faces, and the pressure they radiated showed that they didn''t fear death for this noble cause.

    A broad smile took place on Fell''s face. And he couldn''t help but feel bolstered by their bravado; his determination peaked even more, and he couldn''t help but think that if with the city united, then saving it could be an actual possibility.

    "Count us in!", voices boomed from many places in the city. And like a sporadic wave that was shared from one individual to another.

    Voices bloomed, from everywhere in the central district; Every single one of them showed a determination to bet their lives without any reservation.

    Walter couldn''t help but be surprised at the course of the event. And the image of Fell in his heart rose higher, and from the sympathetic young cultivator that came to the central district. He now saw Fell as a capable man, someone who could ignite the thrust and passion in every citizen.

    Even those well known for their absurd selfishness followed the wave and declared that their intent to fight to the bitter end ¡ª especially those families under the leading nobles who were the first ones to join Fell''s declaration.

    Fell looked at the many individuals in front of him. And couldn''t help but feel enormous pressure when looking at each one of them; he couldn''t help but feel an immense pressure lay on top of his shoulders, one akin to the weight of hundreds of mountains. His heartbeat grew in an explosive pace, and the young cultivator had to regulate his breath to gather his composure.

    "How are the defenses of our city?", asked Fell while looking at the many cops in front of him. The unfortunate individual couldn''t help but feel a chill run down their spines, and they looked at each other while pondering on an answer.

    "If the situation is as you said. I can assure the young hero that the walls of our city will stand tall for a few hours.", a voice appeared from the middle of the group of police officers. Steps resounded, and a middle aged man walked from within the group. Fell couldn''t help but feel that he had seen the man before; His memory reversed, and he remembered that he had seen the man when he had followed Walter in the Police Department.

    The middle aged man had been following the youth from the Golden family, just before their MechSuit''s fight. The middle aged man, with a mask of seriousness placarded on his face added. "Yet, I''m afraid if a few hours can save us from this predicament."

    "Walter, what about the droids in the factory?", he asked while turning around the assault team leader. "Are they usable?", he added.

    "They are.", he nodded before pausing. "But I don''t think we have the time to prepare their transportation.".

    A voice jumped from the group of nobles. "They can be activated from a long distance. We need to order them to come here. With their speed, they''ll be here in two hours at most.", the man swiftly turned around and ordered a few individuals around him for the operation to begin.

    "Let us prepare our defenses!", said Fell with a determined tone. A wave of adrenaline rushed through everyone, and they collectively began looking for ways to defend their cities.

    And before long, the street was emptied in a few minutes. With each individual, rushing to augment their chances of survival.

    If their collective actions could augment their survival chances by a single percent, then that could already be a tremendous success.

    With everyone leaving in a hurry, Fell soon found himself standing alone in the street.

    "I might have missed the event, but I''m in.", Fell turned his head looking at the source of the words

    And saw Wind looking at him with a wry smile on his face. "I would never have thought that thing would go south this fast.", he added before walking toward his brother.

 Chapter 197 - Gathering Of Strength Part Four

    Fell nodded toward his brother, and couldn''t help but let a sigh escape from his lips. He had always been a loner, and now the number of people looking up to him was more significant than the people he had met through his entire life. "You know that you might still have a chance to leave if you rush out now.", Fell said with a serious expression on his face.

    "Do not insult me!", retorted Wind with anger flashing on his face. "This is also my hometown. If I can''t at least try protecting it, then there is no meaning to my life as a cultivator."

    Fell''s eyes glowed with a mysterious light. He knew very well what the young official meant as he was also in the same state. Soul cultivators were entitled to act as they wanted, or else the manifestation of their persona would never take place.

    "And like they say. It is in time of danger that heroes are born.", he added while gazing at the sky.

    "Hey brother, the sky of the city is beautiful, right?", he asked without taking his sight from the luminous canvas of firmament.

    "Hmm.", nodded Fell while also gazing at the incandescent city. "Let us do our best in protecting this place.", he added.

    They stood there for an undetermined period of time. Minutes passed where both youths gazed at the stars, in complete silence.

    Fell was the first one to break the mood. His head stopped looking at the sky, and his legs began moving in the streets of the city. His brother, Wind, gazed strangely at his brother but still followed in his footsteps. They toured through the streets of the central districts.

    During their journey, they moved through several streets they were used to go through. But they also toured the ones they never soiled with their steps, and Fell couldn''t help but capture the image of the serene city. It was currently empty, as it was nearly the middle of the night. The only individuals that were outside were either the ones preparing their departure; or the ones rushing to consolidate the defense of their hometown.

    One might expect riots in a situation like this. But there were no such things in the streets of New Casablanca, and the masses of citizens were either gathering resources to flee or the opposite. Preparing to fight to their last breath.

    Fell couldn''t help but feel a strange sensation go through his body. And a kind of fear took over his soul, visions of carnage filled his thought when he looked at the quiet streets. After what felt like dozens of minutes of slow-paced walk, Fell took a decision and began walking to his home.

    If he wanted to be ready, he knew very well that he needed one last cultivation sessions. One where he would ignite his battle intent, and sharpen his intent to protect this city. He knew that the position of leadership wasn''t one that suited him well, and his mixed emotions were a clear sign of that.

    "Wind.", said Fell in a calm voice. "I''m going in closed door cultivation, this is my last seclusion in this city, but I still need you to take care of a few things for me."

    "Go to the battle center, and relay this message for me.", he added before telling Wind a long line of explanation that he needed to relay to the chairman.

    Wind''s eyes opened widely, and he couldn''t help but immediately object. But a cold glare from his brother washed his fiery temper in an instant. Then, a beaming smile appeared on Fell''s youthful face, and he added.

    "This is just a last precaution, and my final gift to you.", he then turned around without waiting for his brother to respond. "Don''t throw your life, brother."

    Fell enter through the automatic door of the building where his apartment was. His face was grim, and an intense turmoil had taken grasp in his heart due to the courses of event. The many bitter pills he had to swallow this night had left him in a terrible mental state, yet even if he felt tired and wanted to lay down in his bed.

    The moment he entered his apartment, he went straight up inside of his room and sat cross legged on his bed. His eyes closed, and with it, his heart and senses were imprisoned in his body. His back was straight, with shoulder relaxed and slightly opened lips. He began regulating his breathing with the Anzar breathing technique.

    Air would enter through his lips, move down his throat before filling his lungs. This simple action innate to any living being could take a minute for Fell to execute. His organism slowed down, and before long, he was in a deep meditative state due to his respiration technique.

    His minute, yet powerful breaths, had slowed down to an incredibly low rate. With each lengthy breath, his energy, mind, and blood would be further refined. Not only that, even his heart was being cleansed from the negative thoughts.

    He kept executing his breathing technique for a little more than two hours. He stopped counting the number of cycles he had achieved when he broke through the hundreds'' mark, and the effect of this cultivation happened to be very beneficial for his mental state. The intense emotional turmoil he was feeling had calmed down, and he opened his eyes.

    A sharp glint escaped from his pupil, and striking cold calmness suffused from his entire being. He had come up in term with everything that was going to happen; acceptance for the fact that New Casablanca''s destruction, acceptance for the fact that many lives would be extinguished, acceptance for the fact that he would undoubtedly be powerless in front of those events.

    It was only through coming in check with reality that his chances of success could rise. Lying to oneself was a dangerous act that wouldn''t benefit anyone in the city.

 Chapter 198 - Gathering Of Strength Part Five

    His hand moved, and the tiny sword he received as a gift appeared in the palm of his hand. His eyes opened slightly in surprise, and he couldn''t help but send the object back in the spatial pocket. He repeated the action and was mildly surprised by the fact that the range he could draw items from his spatial pocket grew.

    When taking out the tiny sword, he had thought about it first, but before he even had the time to approach the space between his eyebrows. The tiny sword had appeared in an instant inside of the grasp of his hand.

    He circled part of his will and swiftly understood the reason for the progress. His soul cultivation had broken through the last hurdle and had swiftly advanced to the peak of the first realm. Now from the three cultivation systems, he trained in, only his body was lacking and was still a little bit far from the peak.

    "I guess that acceptance is a matter of the soul. Well, coming up on term with my own future death has its benefits.", he joked as a self-deprecating grin appeared on his lips.

    He gazed at the tiny sword in his hand and began minutely studying its surface. His fingertips drew a line on its small surface, and he felt every nook and cranny of the sword''s area. He soon came to notice the many runic symbols and characters drawn along the blade, and before long didn''t find anything else except those symbols.

    His fingertips moved on the tiny inscription, and he drew the symbols in his thoughts. It was the only method he knew, and due to that fact, he was utterly ludicrous to the many characters on the sword. He could only try and draw those symbols in his mind and see if there would be any effect like with the spatial scripture.

    The first attempt ended a failure as he wasn''t accustomed to the symbols on the sword. And before long, after dozens of minutes of time and trial, he managed to draw an identical character. The many lines and curves were identical to the point where he was even proud of his progress with drawing symbols in his sea of thoughts.

    But his expression turned ugly after time passed, and he was pained to see that his efforts were in vain and that there were no changes that happened. "Let''s try and see how the sword reacts with my cultivation bases."

    The moment that thought appeared in his mind, his hand grasped the sword tighter, and a flood of will came crashing down on the tiny sword. The pressure surrounding his hand grew, and before long creaking and eerie screeches escaped from the bladed weapon. His eye lit up, and he sent even more will washing down on the mini sword.

    Then, he suddenly stopped and noticed that there was no change to the sword, and his will would only cause the material of the sword to creak. He stopped his reckless act and thanked the many divinities that the weapon hadn''t turned into bits during the waves of will.

    "I guess my soul cultivation won''t do the job. Time to try with my body and energy.", and the moment he thought about it. He executed himself, and wisps of liquid energy flew out of his dantian. His refined Heaven and Earth energy coursed through his meridians, moving along many pathways in his torso, the wisps of energy arrived in the meridians in his arms. And before long, a wisp of golden-colored energy flew out of his finger tips and fell on the tiny sword.

    Sparks of lightning appeared in the air around his hand. They drew many colorful arcs as they followed the drop of energy toward the sword. The moment the drop of liquid energy touched the sword, it disappeared in an instant and was swiftly absorbed by the tiny artifact.

    Fell waited for a few seconds, and an annoyed expression flashed on his eyes. There was no change in the sword-shaped artifact, and just as he resigned himself to use the weapon purely with his physical strength. A change happened in the many sword''s surfaces, and more than half of the scripture in it lit up in a golden colored light.

    A spark appeared around his sword, and it weakly yet firmly took up the air. It vibrated and shook with difficulty, but still managed to maintain itself in midair. A surprised look flashed on Fell''s eyes, and he couldn''t help but try to control the sword with his thoughts, but it was to no avail, and the sword simply kept hovering in front of his face.

    After a few seconds passed, it weakly fell back on his lap and recovered its previous appearance. The sparks had disappeared, and the golden-colored glow of the symbol left as fast as it appeared. "So it does use heaven and earth energy as fuel, but how the hell do I control its flight?", he thought before falling in deep thoughts for an extended period of time.

    "Well, I can''t see any other solution that testing it with my blood now.", he raised a sliver of cloth from his arm. He took out Soldier''s Fortune from his spatial pocket, before cutting open a tiny gash on his forearm. Even with the density and resiliency of his physique, with a sword coated by his sword intent, it was still a piece of cake to get injured himself.

    He wrapped his will around a drop of blood and carefully controlled it. The drop of blood flew out of his arm and began moving toward the tiny sword in front of him. The moment the drop of blood made contact with the tiny sword, it swiftly disappeared from its surface. And the entirety of the scripture on the sword lit up with an azure colored glow.

    With that, appeared a long line of explanation about the artifact''s usage in Fell''s mind.

 Chapter 199 - Clock Ticking Part One

    Fell didn''t move at all during the next minutes. His face was expressionless, and his absent gaze showed that his mind was focused on the explanation of the tiny sword.

    The artifact didn''t have a name and was a flying sword type of artifact. In fact, it was very similar to the virtual immortal''s sword, expect that Fell''s sword was focused on a sneak attack. With its abnormally small size, it clearly specialized in ending an opponent''s life without his notice.

    After a few minutes passed, he finished digesting the information related to the tiny sword; And began executing the steps to gain full control of the artifact.

    To gain complete control of the sword, he needed to shelter the sword in his own body; in his dantian, to be even more precise.

    He would, then, need to groom the sword in his energy core, sharing with it any kind of energy he cultivated. He decided to use his Heaven and Earth energy as it was the most advanced and would give him control over the sword the fastest way. As soon as he decided, he began executing the steps recorded in the tiny sword; first, he needed to bath the sword in his blood essence, then from there, the sword would gain the capacity of traveling inside of his body.

    He fell in deep thought for a few seconds. And began searching for a way to gather his own blood essence, as blood essence was a type of more concentrated blood that usually rested in a place close to the human heart. Fell didn''t know if that fact was a generality or if humans were the only species with that case.

    He closed his eyes and sent his senses focused on his own body. After scanning the area near his heart with his will, he soon found what he had been looking for. He directed the concentrated his will around those specific drops of bloods and began moving the blood essence through his veins.

    After a minute of tedious focus, he managed to, neatly, complete the work in one go. His face was pale, and droplets of sweats began streaking down his face. His lips trembled, and an excruciating migraine hit his mind, but he couldn''t stop as he was nearly done with this step. His hand moved toward his chest, and with one swift movement, he slapped his chest dozens of times in an instant.

    His blood boiled, and coursed in his vein and heat appeared in the place he had stroked. His mouth opened, and he coughed twice; the first cough was dry, one that resembled a gag, but the second cough was accompanied with a mouthful of blood. The blood didn''t seem any different from what coursed through his veins, but any cultivator could feel the concentration of blood essence in it.

    He smeared the blood on the tiny sword, and with a few swipes of his fingers, the little blade of the sword turned red. The inscription written in it lit up in a crimson red light; flashed twice, illuminating Fell''s dim lighted room in a gorgeous red hue.

    After the second flash died down, Fell wasn''t surprised to notice that the sword that was in his hand could no longer be seen. One would imagine that it had disappeared, but Fell knew that the sword had only drastically reduced its size, and had turned into quasi-invisible to the naked eye. Even with his cultivated physique, he couldn''t help but only sense the sword due to his blood essence, his eyes only caught a minute glint in the middle on his palm.

    "What an incredible artifact¡­", he thought before opening his lips. "I wonder what the method used to construct such artifact was¡­", he added in his thought as he began inhaling. Wisps of air rushed through his mouth and down his throat. Within them was the micro-sized sword, it swiftly flew through his lungs. And from there began traveling in his body.

    Thankfully, his blood essence smeared on the weapon helped him direct it. Or else it would have been a nightmare as the sword was genuinely microscopic. After two minutes of hard and long focused work, he managed to direct the sword from his lungs to a meridian pathway that wasn''t far away. Fell couldn''t help but think that the fact that he had a complete opened set of meridians heavily facilitated the arduous step.

    From the meridian where the sword was, a wave of liquid energy washed the pathway and began cycling and refining the sword through his meridian. Before leaving the sword in his dantian, he needed, first, to prepare the sword and get it accustomed to his energy. This step was earlier than the other one, and Fell only needed to cycle the sword through his meridian for a few revolutions. Although the action didn''t take much energy for Fell to accomplish, it still took him a decent amount of time, and only after half an hour passed did he finish.

    His internal sight was locked on the tiny sword that had turned into one of the many sparks of electricity. Fell directed the waves of heaven and earth energy toward the final step of the artifact refining. The sword was directed toward his navel, right where his dantian laid.

    The tiny sword regained its size the moment it entered the space where Fell''s energy core laid. And without needing the do anything, the sword went in the middle of his dantian, close to where the sea of clouds resided.

    A hostile growl resounded from the sea of clouds. And Little Gold''s tiny head broke through a milky white cloud, the little beast couldn''t help but look at the object with a strange gaze, and only when he saw that the saw wasn''t nearing his position anymore did he stop growling.

    "Calm down, Little Gold. There is a new resident here, treat him well, and don''t bully him.", joked Fell before sighing a lengthy exhale. He grabbed a towel and wiped the sweat from his face and got up from his bed.

 Chapter 200 - Clock Ticking Part Two

    His leg took him out of his room. And Fell looked for a long time at the apartment he had used in the central district. Although he hadn''t stayed here for an extended time, the memory of his life here was still vivid and numbed his cold heart even further. He sadly concluded that his feet would no longer walk on the brow colored carpet that laid the floor.

    He moved his head in an abrupt manner and left his home with one last gaze before closing the door. He walked through the silent corridor and arrived in front of the metallic door of the elevator. He pressed the dial and saw on the panel left to the metallic doors that a person occupied the descending elevator.

    "Guess everyone is preparing themselves¡­", he thought while waiting for a few seconds. The door opened smoothly, and he stepped inside of the metallic box with an unhurried pace. He flashed a polite smile toward the person who was there.

    He was mildly surprised to recognize the woman that was standing with her back against the huge mirror.

    She nodded back; both of them stood in silence as they waited for a few seconds. The descend stopped, and the automatic door shifted the sides without producing any noise. Fell was the first to depart from the elevator, and he couldn''t help but let a sentence escape from his lips.

    "Good luck for what is coming.", the woman''s expression didn''t change. Probably since she had pairs of earphones strapped on her ears, but the young cultivator couldn''t care any less.

    The sentence could even be said to have been directed at himself.

    Although he had entirely accepted the fact that the city was doomed; Part of his soul was still reluctant for that to happen; Within that extreme acceptance had been birthed an undying unwillingness toward the incoming calamity.

    His noses picked up the city''s fresh midnight air, and he left the reception hall and arrived in the street of the central district. "AI, contact Walter through my cellphone.", he ordered between two mouthfuls of breath.

    After a few seconds, the middle-aged man slightly loud voice resounded in his head. And after speaking with each other for a minute, they came up with a plan for the next courses of action. Fell began moving in the direction of the police department, and during his walk, he couldn''t help but see the changes of expression in the street filled with citizens.

    The few ones who were outside had dark faces filled with grim expressions. Fell could smell the scent of battle churn in the streets of New Casablanca, and he couldn''t help but feel his heart rate augment by a slight margin. Apprehension filled his thought as he quickened his pace, and before long, the large building used as the police department appeared in the middle of his sight.

    The many windows in the front were lighted, showing the activity that was inside.

    He approached the familiar building, and couldn''t help but remember the last time the police assault team accompanied him. Those were happy and innocent memories that he came to cherish in time like these; thoughts of his hometown destruction didn''t yet flood his mind for every second that passed.

    He saw two police officers standing guard in front of the entrance. He nodded before stepping inside, and brouhaha of noise pierced through his ears. He couldn''t help but feel slightly disorientated by the amount of sound that reverberated inside the police center. It took him a second to recollect his dazed senses, and the image of dozens of individuals running everywhere around offices appeared in front of him. They could be seen rushing from one phone call to another, with spits flying out of their mouths and faces red and filled with many veins.

    The many groups of police officers were doing their utmost in contacting the individuals that were prepared to fight to the death. And as time was counted in the large hall, one easily found himself obliged to contact many people at the same time. Fell advanced through the reception hall filled with desks, and couldn''t help but whistle from admiration in his thoughts.

    "Prepare your forces to be ready at noon!?"

    "We need those ammunitions here before dawn even arrives!", the many members taking care of the logistic of the incoming war were doing their best in gathering every single bullet that could be found. They knew very well, due to Fell''s information, that the number of fierce beasts would be ungodly and would, without a doubt, force them to consume every single ammunition they had in the police departments.

    "Begin assembling your forces. We''re in need of every single MechSuit Pilot. Even if they can''t walk, can''t grab a weapon, throw them in the machines. The important is that they want to fight!". Sentences like these resounded everywhere around Fell and seeing the enthusiasm of everyone. He couldn''t help but birth a small smile on his youthful face.

    A few police officers send him gazes filled with respect and bowed to him whenever he passed next to their offices. Fell would imitate their actions and showed every single one of them the respect they deserved. Without those brave men and women, he would end up facing an unending mob of monsters and beasts.

    And even if the energy in his meridians was limitless and his body undying, if his will flinched for even a second, then he would be done for. But surrounded by brave comrades, he had a premonition that the battle strength he would portray would surpass everything he had ever accomplished.

    "I''m grateful to be part of this city.", he thought before entering the elevator. He had been told by Walter than the higher-ups of the police departments had regrouped in an office there, and that was the real reason for his arrival. With their meager resources, they knew that bravery and tenacity would come to up to nothing in the end.

 Chapter 201 - Clock Ticking Part Three

    What could truly change the crux of the problem was tactics. If they wanted even to have one speck of a change to succeed, they needed to form a battle plan before the fight.

    Although Fell didn''t really feel that he was capable of birthing a plan better than the higher-ups there, Walter and the others still felt that his presence was necessary, and had asked for his to be part of the reunion.

    The elevator opened, and a large corridor appeared in front of him. A man stood with his back against the wall, and Fell couldn''t see his feature with clarity in the dimly lighted room. But just from the side of his face, he could see that the man gave off the impression that he didn''t care about anything.

    He even seems annoyed when looking at Fell, and lazily nodded before turning around. He began walking, clearly intending for the youth to just follow him. Fell didn''t mind the man''s action and walked behind his steps, and before long, they arrived in front of a wooden door. The lazed man sighted before pressing his arms against the door and opened it before stepping inside.

    He only took a single step and stood in the door before turning toward Fell, showing him that he couldn''t enter the room. Fell nodded and expressed a polite thanks to the man before stepping in the room.

    The first thing that appeared in his eyes was the large circular table in the center of the room. Around it sat many middle-aged men and women, wearing suits and he noticed a clearly tired Walter in the middle of them. Just from the layout of the table, it could be seen who were the higher graded, and who were the lower ones.

    Walter was clearly part of the later and had been silent for a long period of time before Fell arrived. His face lit up the moment he saw the cultivator from the Core, and he rose up from his seat with a smile on his aged face.

    "Welcome, Fell, come here and sit close to me.", he then turned around and spoke in a loud yet respectful voice. "Everyone, I don''t think I need to tell you who this youth is. I hope that in the case, he have any insight to share, you will listen to him.", he added before shoving the youth from the back.

    Fell''s vision traveled around the room. And his vision couldn''t help but stop on a man wearing military clothing, as it was the first time he had seen a man in such cloth in New Casablanca. He knew from the existence of the old general that military forces existed on Earth, but ever since he began residing in the Central District, he had never met anyone else from any armed corp.

    "You can ignore my presence.", said, Fell in a calm tone. "I don''t think any of my insights can compare to wise men like you."

    Flashes of surprise appeared in the faces of a few men, and the middle-aged man who had been present in the streets close to the macabre ballroom spoke in a brisk voice. "Do not humble yourself, young hero, this meeting is for all of us to find a reliable tactic to survive."

    "We are all aware that the incoming war that will fill our streets is unavoidable. But even if we have to sacrifice thousands of lives to secure the life of a few innocent, then our bets will be won.", Fell couldn''t help but see the man in a bright eye. Although his face was riddled with the ravage of time, and his body was far from capable of fighting any beast.

    The old man gave him the impression he could take hundreds of fierce beasts with him in death.

    The man wearing military clothing spoke in an unhurried tone, his coarse voice sounded similar to grating steel plates. "If I remember correctly, the fierce beasts are only the first hurdle. There will also be attacks from the sky, right?", he added while looking at Fell with a piercing gaze.

    Fell didn''t avoid the man''s glare and calmly responded to his question in a succinct manner. "The information about the aerial attack is quite lacking.", he paused and looked at the group of individuals in front of him. "Weapons unknown to us will be dropped from above, and if I''m not wrong, the danger from this is far superior to the ravage that will be caused by the beasts.

    "Weapons?", repeated the military man with a hand on his chin. "You mean that they will bomb this city¡­", he mumbled under his breath. "If they mean unknown to us, then neutron and nuclear bombs are out of the scheme.", he added before falling silent.

    "That''s true that the shield sheltering New Casablanca is sufficient to resist nuclear bombs without any difficulty.", added one of the men with light glinting in his pupils. Silence took over the reunion, and the many individuals in place racked their brains in search of an answer.

    "If I''m not off the chart, the bombs they will be using are related to cultivators.". Fell said, breaking the silence in one go and gathering the attention of the higher-ups.

    "What do you mean by cultivator bombs?", asked one of the men with a clenched fist that he nearly pounded on the table. His heart couldn''t help but be taken by immense fear the moment he heard about bombs that could be created by cultivators. The concept and potential destruction caused by those weapons could truly wipe out a city.

    "I''m not sure. But let''s say that instead of using normal resources on those weapons, and instead of humanities'' knowledge on radioactivity. Assuming that they use heaven and earth energy to fuel them, then it couldn''t be surprising that the weapon''s destructive potential could turn the moon into clouds of dust.", he added before shutting his

 Chapter 202 - Clock Ticking Part Four

    Although those were just deductions, he feared that he wasn''t far from the truth, and the many men present here felt that the possibility of such weapon existing was more than real. Silence took over the reunion, and the pale faces on the many men showed their intense internal turmoil.

    Fell couldn''t help but carefully gaze at each of them. With this information, dropped like a bomb, it wouldn''t be surprising that the majority of them would bail out on the fight.

    Walter had a wry smile on his lips, and he couldn''t help but shudder at the thought of such a weapon''s existence. He tried opening his lips to reveal the atmosphere, but when he tried, no sound escaped from his throat, and he only swallowed his intention.

    "I don''t want to lie to any of you. The calamity that will hit our city will destruct it with a probability nearing one hundred percent. And sadly, it is only through truly accepting this fact that we might have a speck of a chance to turn destiny''s path, and shift the incoming fight to our advantage."

    "To be honest, The vicious beasts aren''t what is truly making me afraid. We, humans, have developed weapons strong enough, akin to their claws and fangs, and it wouldn''t be surprising that we managed to repel their assault completely."

    "But if we don''t find a solution to counter those unknown bombs, then it is simply over."

    "Please, everyone, think about anything that might help us. Even if it sounds absurd or stupid, don''t hesitate to share your thoughts as anything can help us at this point."

    The many men sitting around the table couldn''t help but nod silently, with an ugly expression on their darkened faces, they fell in deep thoughts. Many bodily tics resurfaced, and their ranges of motion extended from merely stroking one''s jaw to tapping with their fingers the glass table in rhythm.

    A womanly voice resounded through the silent room, and the many eyes turned toward it. She was one of the few higher ups of the police department of the city and was on top of the East police center of the central district.

    "What about using the Core of New Casablanca?", she asked without taking her gaze out of Fell. "I mean if those, ungodly, kind of weapon were to be dropped on us. I can''t think about any one who will use those kinds of resources without any spare."

    "Our city isn''t any important place on Earth, and if there wanted our utmost destruction. Those weapons would already have been dropped on every inch of our beautiful planet.", everyone couldn''t help but nod at her logic.

    "Which means that their objective is probably to colonize us¡­", she added before pausing for a second. "New Casablanca''s attack might be a show of strength to the other cities of our planet. Something that will mark the spirit of every Earthling with horror and fear.". In the last part of her sentence, her voice turned slightly acute, and she couldn''t help but stop and take a deep breath.

    Although what she shared was closer to theory, everyone present couldn''t help but find it plausible. "If this is the case¡­", spoke the man in military clothing. "Then it is our duty to leave this Earth with pride, let''s show them that we ain''t some fragile species. And if they come to bite us, then they should expect to lose a few fangs!", his loud voice reverberated through the room. And his passion kindled the cold heart of the many individuals present.

    "Right!", one of the other men couldn''t help but roar while hitting the table with a mighty slap. "We aren''t some weak species that can only take a hit, and not retaliate. Worst comes to worst; we''ll detonate our massive energy resources and take down everything before they even use their weapon.", the man added. Proposing a suicidal attack wasn''t something the individuals were affectionate off as their goal would shift from protecting the few citizens that stayed, and would turn into a message for the rest of the planet.

    A few disgruntled voices rose, and the dialog intensified between the many men and women in the room. Fell couldn''t help but look silently at them, and before long, decided to stop their fiery and slightly useless argumentation.

    "The Core can be used as a retreat, as the last option. There exist a large distance between the central district and the Core. We could use this at our advantage to retreat, and if we prepare ourselves early for this possibility. We might even detonate the many factories along the road to secure our backing.", he succinctly spoke.

    The many eyes in the room were again marked on him. And this time, his proposal managed to please both side of the reunion; be it those who wanted to fight in a suicidal manner to the bitter end, or those who wanted to try and save the brave citizen who didn''t escape.

    "We could even send the few citizens that stayed in the Core, and at the same time, prepare the detonation of the many factories.", he added before silently waiting for an answer.

    "Kid, are you some kind of military genius?", joked the military clothed man before nodding to his plan.

    "I can help take care of the accommodation of the citizen in the Core. Although I hadn''t been there for a long time, I have many contacts there, and I might manage to rally a few brave heroes to our cause.", he added before falling in deep thought.

    It had been a long time since he had met Vicious Zhang; the bastard had been a fatherly figure for him throughout his whole life, and now that the survival of the city was at bay, he couldn''t help but feel like meeting him one last time. His memory flashed, and the many brave men from the gladiator heaven appeared in his mind.

 Chapter 203 - Clock Ticking Part Five

    Although he didn''t spend that much time inside of Gladiator''s Heaven, he was sure that those people wouldn''t forget about the time they spent together. If he explained the matter correctly, they might agree to fight at his side, and that would raise the strength of their city by a noticeable margin.

    "I will make a trip to the Core. Please, do prepare every MechSuit available as I will be getting a few fighters.", then he got up from his chair and bowed deeply in front of the many men.

    He turned around and began leaving the room under the watchful eyes of the higher ups of the defense team. They couldn''t help but watch each other, and before Fell''s legs walked out of the room, one of them spoke in a loud voice.

    "Wait, I''ll send a team with you, they''ll separate from you and go to the many factories in the road."

    One of the women jumped and exclaimed in a matter of fact tone. "There is no need to go to each factory one by one. It would take too much time, and before you even manage to pass through half of them, the attack would have long been finished."

    "You need to go to the mother factories, and from there, you can prepare the factories'' self destruction program. I''ll send a part of my IT team; they will help in the management."

    "You also need defenses. You never know how to Core citizen will act.", added one of the men around the table.

    "Enough!", said Fell with an annoyed tone. He didn''t expect that he would be accompanied by a large cortege on his trip to the Core. "I''m a native from there, and I''m powerful enough on my own.", he paused for a second before turning toward the woman who had proposed the mother factories'' plan. "I''m good with your IT teams following me. But I will go the Core on my own!", he added before turning and leaving.

    "I will leave in a few minutes.", he then added before his figure disappeared in the dimly lighted corridor. "I will wait in front of the police department if no one comes in ten minutes. Then I will depart alone."

    The higher ups related to the factory''s operation moved, and with a few phone calls secured a team to follow Fell. Before Fell even had the time to leave the building, a car was already waiting for him outside of the police department. An unnoticeable glint flashed in his eyes as he was truly surprised by their logistics efficiency, and climbed on the vehicle with a light jump.

    He sat on the back of the cargo and nodded toward the many members of this operation before closing his eyes. The pair of men and women aboard the vehicle didn''t take his action at heart and simply let him do as he pleased. If it wasn''t for him, then the attack would have been a surprise attack, and they would have no chance to survive the incoming war.

    They couldn''t help but feel thankful in their heart for his honesty. But what would they have thought if they knew that the reason of the attack was due to Fell; would they still be thankful, or would they turn savage beasts worse than the vicious beasts outside of the wall of the city. Fell didn''t know, and even if he did, he wouldn''t care at all.

    It was quite egoistic for him to keep that part of the story for himself. But if he wanted for New Casablanca to have a decimal of chance of succeeding in its defense, they could only hope on their own cohesion and will to survive. At this point, telling them that information would only end the good nature of their relation, and make their work together unpredictable.

    The vehicle began moving at a fast allure a few seconds after he hopped in. In the near empty streets of the city, the vehicle had already shifted to the maximum speed. They were dashing through the streets at high speeds. They traversed the city in the blink of an eye, and arrived in the the wall that separated the main district from the highway that led to the Core.

    As it was a vehicle from the police department, and as they had been aware of their passage, they only stopped for less than a second. Enough for the door to open up, before the engines roared and kicked in. They sped through the highway at an incredible speed, and Fell couldn''t help but feel the air that made contact his skin turn sharp under their speed.

    Not even fifteen minutes after their arrival in the highway, the vehicle stopped, and one of the pairs of men and women jumped from the back of the car. Fell nodded toward them before looking around him, and he saw the group enter from an unobstructed tray that was on the side of the road. As he looked further in the distance, he couldn''t help but gaze at a building with a size dozens of times bigger than the factory he had visited.

    "So, this is a mother factory.", he thought while gazing at the black fumes that escaped from the upper part of the construct. Their density made the fumes turn into a near solid matter, and he couldn''t help but feel that the quality of the air here was far too lacking compared to the main district.

    "Even the Core''s filthy air is more breathable than this shit.", he thought as he felt the vehicle resume its journey. Time passed quickly, and before long as he felt that they had made more than half of the journey, the vehicle came to a stop, and the last pair of men and women left the vehicle.

    "This is where our journey together stops.", they exclaimed in a calm voice. They donned a large black Hazmat style suit, and nodded toward the young cultivator before walking toward one of the many factories.

 Chapter 204 - Ones Origin Part One

    "I guess I need to finish the journey walking.", he thought while jumping out of the back of the vehicle. His feet lightly tapped the ground under his leg, and without any ample movement, his figure disappeared from nearby the car.

    He reappeared more than hundreds of meters away from the vehicle. He looked back and assessed that it shouldn''t take him more than a few minutes to arrive there, and he resumed his run.

    The sea of factories surrounding him blurred in his vision, and the speed of his run rose higher and higher. As his leg took him closer to the Core, his thought began filling with memories and images of his youth there. And even with the rough and horrible condition he had been through when living there, he couldn''t help but feel a strange type of nostalgia.

    "I wonder how that bastard Moha is doing?", he mumbled under a sharp breath. "What about his bar, Pig''s Paw. I hope his business has been going well."

    With thoughts filled with memories of the figures that appeared in his past. He didn''t feel the time pass, and before long, he saw the end of the highway draw in the distance. Inside of the dark, filthy black and obscure clouds, he noticed a few flashes of colorful lights and knew that the source of light was coming from the few big buildings of the Core.

    He couldn''t help but augment his running speed, and the lines of those many steel buildings appeared in front of him. Although this part of the city screamed of desolation and poverty, he couldn''t help but feel himself at home the moment he stepped out of the highway. He couldn''t help but have his heart yearn for the narrow streets he had hated for the majority of his life.

    Those streets had caused him to face many fears that had turned into trauma during his youth. But now that he had the strength to protect himself, he couldn''t help but feel something completely different. He thought that it was the same sensation a lion would have if he came back to the prairies of his youth, even if that prairie was the place where his parents were coldly murdered by hunters.

    His legs took him inside of the maze like narrow streets of the Core. And before long, he arrived in front of a wooden door with a sign hanging over it. The sign was nearly falling apart, and the doors had many holes that filtered the red light of the business. He couldn''t help but have a wry smile drawn on his lips, and his hand pushed the shabby wooden door open.

    "Get out of here, you drunkards. I''m closed!", a coarse and menacing voice resounded. "This is the middle of the night, and you still want to drink free-!", the voice stopped for a second. Heavy surprise was in what it said next, "Fell?!"

    "You''re right old man Moha!", Fell exclaimed while bursting into a fit of laughter. "Or should I say Young Moha.", his vision refocused, and the man''s beautiful face appeared clearly under the bar''s red light.

    "That''s your goddamn fault!", he roared before stepping forward toward the young cultivator in loud and heavy steps. "Do you have any idea how my business became difficult since I turned like this¡­", he exclaimed with strings of spits jumping out of his lips. Splashing directly on Fell''s face, but the youth didn''t seem to mind at all.

    "Well, that wasn''t something I knew would happen. I was just trying to save your life, old fart.", Said Fell before escaping from Moha''s embrace. "Got any liquor?", he exclaimed before sitting in front of the counter.

    "Bet I do!", Moha flashed a large smile. He moved his massive figure toward the back of the counter, and took out a golden colored bottle. He served one glass to the youth cultivation, who managed to notice three black letters written on it. "XXX?", puzzlement flashed on Fell''s face and he grabbed the filled glass and approached it to his lips. "What the hell does it even mean?", he thought before turning the glass up.

    He threw the glass''s content down his throat, and waves of shivers coursed through his body as a strong taste slapped his buds. He couldn''t help but turn to the left and spat out a few residues of the liquor that stayed in his mouth. He turned toward Moha, who had a beaming smile on his face and who looked as if he was going to burst into a fit of mad laughter, and exclaimed in a menacing tone.

    "What the fuck is this shit! Gasoline probably tastes better than this shit.", veins popped on his face. But after seeing the expression on Moha, he managed to calm down and stroked his temple with his finger.

    "Hahahahaha you bet!", exclaimed Moha who couldn''t contain himself anymore. "This is F3 SuperPlus; it is ninety nine percent of alcohol. And you bet that it works better than gasoline on most of our engines.", he explained before taking out the bottle from the table.

    Without waiting for Fell to say anything, he grabbed another bottle from the counter and filled Fell''s glass. "Want me to change your glass, or you''re okay with the residue of F3?", he asked with a sly grin on his face.

    "I''m good.", Fell said with a sigh before grabbing the glass. He approached the glass to his face and sniffed a few times before gulping down the liquid. A strong and powerful taste filled his mouth, but it was still drinkable as Fell recognized the liquor as being Vodka.

    "You really sell shit here¡­", added Fell as he wasn''t used to the taste of hard liquor. And actually preferred wines, and beer over strong refined liquor. "Sit down Moha. I didn''t come here just to see your beautiful jawline. I''m here for serious business.", his face darkened, and his grim complexion expressed his intent even more than his speech.

 Chapter 205 - Ones Origins Part Two

    Moha couldn''t help but gaze at Fell with surprise on his face. His heart couldn''t help but beat twice in an instant. If the matter was dangerous to the point where Fell had an unsightly expression, then Moha couldn''t help but have his mind reel on the problem.

    "What is going on?" asked Moha with trembling lips. His sight didn''t leave Fell for a second, and he noticed a flash of hesitation appear in Fell''s pupil. "Don''t you dare lie to me!", roared Moha with a slap on the table.

    Fell sighed and massaged his temples with his fingers before speaking in a succinct tone. "New Casablanca is going to be attacked in a few days, at most. I''m here to see if we can accommodate the citizens of the central district here.", he explained the reason for his worry to Moha.

    Moha didn''t speak for an extended period of time; his hands moved, and he served himself several times. And each time he''d empty his glass in one go. "That''s not the sole reason for your journey here, right?", added Moha with a lengthy sigh. His back slid against the wall, and his butt softly fell on a seat.

    "Yeah, I''m planning on meeting the guys from Gladiator''s Heaven. If I manage to rally them, they will surely assist greatly in defense of our city.". Fell said with a smile on his lips, those buff and powerful men would surely turn into tremendously powerful units when equipped with MechSuits.

    As most of them were cultivators, albeit low level one, they would still help raise their chance of survival by a large margin.

    "I guess this city has existed for too many years¡­", said Moha before gulping another glass of hard liquor. "Well, the citizens of the Core are proud people. I''m not sure if they''ll want to work with the citizens of the central districts.". He then mumbled under his breath, but Fell still managed to hear him.

    "Not everyone here is like you¡­", although he knew that Moha didn''t mean it in a vicious way. Fell still felt a slight tinge tighten around his heart, and only after seeing the sorrowful expression on Moha''s face did the sensation disappear. "The Core has always been the trashcan of the city. Here we were used as workers for the heavily polluting factories, yet we never complained and always did our work."

    "We yearned for survival, and peaceful life was something every inhabitant of the Core looked for.", then anger flashed in his eyes. "Then, with the advancement of time, those factories didn''t need us anymore, and we lost our sole footsteps in society."

    "Listen well, Fell, because this is the history of your hometown.", he paused for a second. Fell swallowed his saliva with difficulty; his eyes didn''t leave Moha for even a split second. "The people from the Core yearn for a day where they will topple the central district. I''m afraid many will want to use the incoming danger to their advance."

    "The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind¡­", muttered the young cultivator in a low volume.

    "Yeah, kinda like that.", blurted Moha before continuing. "Although I''m sure many will listen to you, and will definitely follow you as their leader.", he then paused for a second and hesitated for a second to speak but stopped.

    "Speak, old man, What''s the problem?", exclaimed Fell loudly.

    "Hmm, nothing of relevance.", said Moha in a soft tone. "Although I''m no cultivator, I can feel a tremendous amount of pressure in your body.", he then added with a smile on his face. "You''ve turned into quite the powerful figure in a short time."

    "Even If I don''t want to deal with those bastards from the main districts. I''ll do it in your name, and I''ll take care of securing a few shelters for them in the case you send a bunch here.", he then added before snapping his fingers. "You owe me, one kid."

    "I owe you a lot, old man.", added Fell before getting up from his chair. "By the way, do you think Filthy Jade Palace can offer some help?".

    "They''ve disappeared overnight¡­", responded Moha. "This is one of the recent mysteries in the Core. Overnight, it was disbanded, and its surviving members had laid low here."

    He then added after a deep thought before raising his shoulders toward the ceiling. "I get a few of them here from time to time. They drink, pay, and leave without making a fuss."

    "Thanks for the drinks, old man. I''ll be leaving the preparation of the shelters in your hands. The entirety of the central district might find itself obliged to retreat here.", he ended his speech with a serious tone. He nodded one last time toward Moha before leaving ''Pig''s Paw'' in a hurry.

    Moha couldn''t help but keep gazing at the door for a long period of time. And after a few minutes, he sighed one last time, and his hands moved, taking out a few communication devices. He then began making one call after another; his strong voice reverberated through the empty bar and even a few homeless drunkards were awakened by his powerful shouts.

    As for Fell, his legs began taking him through the narrow streets of the Core. The tagged walls and the soft blue ray coming from the neons of the closed shops lighted the road in front of him. His hand closed on the wall, and as he walked, he felt the rugged steel that was used to construct the shantytown.

    It was truly a far cry from the smooth and shiny construct of the main district. But he couldn''t help but feel himself at ease in those narrow streets, and his footsteps accelerated as he began running through the empty streets. Before long, he arrived in one of the most ominous places of the Core. The infamous Baby Cemetery, and the place where he had grown and lived through the majority of his youth.

 Chapter 206 - Ones Origins Part Three

    A massive sense of nostalgia washed his soul when his sight focused on the shabby construct made of rotten wood, and broken piece of steels. Dust filled with bits of rusted steel, and other scraps of material rose every time stepped on the floor of the Baby Cemetery.

    He couldn''t help but take a deep breath in the heavily polluted air. "How the hell do people even survive here?", he couldn''t help but think. Underaged kids abandoned in this desolate place of the Core, yet a number of them would still topple destiny, and survive through the harsh condition. Each day would be filled with difficulty just to stay alive.

    Food wasn''t the most significant problem as the human body could stay active without food for days. But the cold air was a whole different thing, and Fell had since long stopped counting the number of dead bodies he had found in the morning. Without food, the meager resources one could have in his body would be washed away in a few hours during a cold night.

    In the end, the most challenging aspect of growing up here was learning how to defend oneself. Because, when he would manage to gather a few meager amounts of food, dozens of crazed, hungry kids would gang up on him. He couldn''t count down the number of times he had to spend the night running away to protect a few grams of nutrients; now, with enough thoughts, he couldn''t help but find that the consumption of energy during the escape wasn''t worth the amount of food he usually had.

    "Thankfully, Moha helped me quite a lot¡­", he mumbled as he walked toward his old house. "Being capable of eating the leftover of Pig''s Paw is probably what saved me."

    During the road to the old mansion, where he had lived for the majority of his life, he met dozens of kids. All of them wore dirty rags for clothes, their faces black like charcoal due to the amount of dust that filled the air.

    Every time he met one, he couldn''t help but stop and talk with him. And after a short discussion that never led to anything more than knowing his ages or names, he would give them a piece of bread. He couldn''t help but have a grin grew on his face when he saw their glistening eyes.

    After grabbing the food, they would quickly hide it and turn around in fear that anyone had seen his treasure. Fell felt enormous sadness in his heart when he saw the traumatized kids, and in the end, ended up nearly emptying his spatial pocket from the food he had. Bread and fruits were given without care, and before long, Fell had a long line of a kid following his back.

    "What a bunch of leeches¡­", he couldn''t help but curse. But in reality, he didn''t mind their acts and even found their antics cute. After arriving in front of the broken down mansion, he turned around and exclaimed in a loud voice.

    "I will be preparing some food for you guys. Go play for a few minutes, and come back here.", he then added with a beaming smile that translated the sympathy he had for those kids. "Trust me. You won''t regret the wait."

    As soon as he spoke, he turned and entered through a hole in the side of the mansion. It had always been the entrance he had used, and when he lived here, he had installed a piece of wood to at least block the wind.

    The group of kids and toddlers were reluctant to leave, but when they saw the man disappear in the mansion, they could only do as they were told. Even if they didn''t fear him, growing in the baby cemetery still caused them to stay on their guard. If it weren''t for the food and for the fact that a large group of kids was following Fell, they would never have dared act this brazen.

    Fell stepped through the large hall of the mansion. And found that the place hadn''t change much during his absence, except for the disappearance of the mat he had been sleeping on. The rest was nearly identical to how he had left it. He looked for a clean place to prepare the food, but didn''t find any.

    He cycled bits of energy in his meridians, and blew the dust away from a corner of the room and began disposing of the ingredient he had. As he wasn''t prepared for an event like this happening, he didn''t take his cooking tools with him and only had a cooking pan. He took out a few shards and pieces of food that laid in the room and began lighting a fire.

    With a snap of his fingers, lightning coursed through his energy pathway, and sparks appeared around the wood. Smoke rose in the air, and with a few waves of his hand, a strong fire took place as the wooden scraps began burning.

    Before starting to cook, he couldn''t help but notice that the combustible was far from enough to prepare everything for the kids. His figure disappeared from the fire, and he reappeared with pieces of wood. It didn''t take him long to find other parts like these, and before long, he had amassed a decent amount of wood.

    He couldn''t help but be surprised that the inhabitant of the Baby Cemetery didn''t scavenge the stacks of wood he had kept hidden here. "I might have hidden them too well.", he thought with a shrug before beginning the mass cooking.

    With a few snaps of his writs, the large steaks he had in his spatial pockets turned into small bits of pink wood. After the fire attained its peak, he dropped oil on the pan and began throwing the meat in it. Pshhhh-! Sounds of frying flesh reverberated in the empty, and before long, a large plate filled with cooked meat lying next to the fire.

 Chapter 207 - Ones Origins Part Four

    After the time, it takes for water to boil passed. Fell left the dilapidated mansion with unhurried steps, and he noticed a few of the kids from the earlier group hidden between a few rocks and steel barriers. He couldn''t help but have a smirk draw on his lips, "Guess they are still suspicious about me.", he thought as the envy to prank them appeared in his mind.

    But as he saw the expression of one of them. The idea immediately disappeared from his thoughts; the snot full brat couldn''t really be called hiding as more than half of his body was apparent, and his eyesight even interlocked with Fell''s gaze.

    Fell beckoned with his hand toward him. And the kid hesitated for a split second before darting in a sprint and seeing their peer acting like these the other didn''t stay hidden for long and began surrounding Fell''s figure. There was even a brave one who continually grabbed his leg while muttering incoherently.

    "Where Ish'' Food?". Fell even felt that if he told the toddler that he didn''t have any food, he would definitely begin screaming and crying from disappointment.

    "Give me some distance, kids.", he said in an authoritative yet amiable tone that made the kid listen to him. They backed away a few steps and began waiting with apparent excitement on their faces. Fell nearly laughed out loud when he saw their little limbs wiggle and wobble around from impatience.

    Fell closed his eyes for a second, and his leg traced a leg step on the ground in a swift movement. He repeated the action thrice in a row and drew a long rectangle on the dusty floor. Then his eyes glowed briskly and lighted in an incandescent light for a split second before he stomped savagely on the ground.

    The floor under his leg trembled. But the vibration didn''t move away from the rectangle, and the kids didn''t feel a thing. Only Fell could feel the numerous wave the solid ground under his leg was going through. Then, like a pillar appearing from the middle of the Earth, the rectangle he had drew popped out of the ground and only stopped when it rose more than dozens of centimeters.

    Gasps echoed through the silent Baby Cemetery. And the many kids, and toddlers, were genuinely gobsmacked by the man''s near-magical art. Their eyes were opened roundly, and their snot dropped low, nearly touching the dusty ground for a few of them.

    "Mister is a saint¡­", murmured one little girl while tugging at her brother''s arm. But her brother''s face rived on the man in front of them, and was entirely oblivious to anything she had said.

    A satisfied smile appeared on his face, and he wiped a trace of sweat that appeared on his face with his sleeve before stepping toward the table made of the ground.

    He looked at it with a contented gaze and patted the table a few times with fast but soft taps. Cloud of dust rose from the table and gathered in a whirlwind in the middle of Fell''s hand, and before long, the table was entirely smooth.

    "Sorry for the wait kids, there is only a last step before everybody can eat together.", with those words, a large piece of tissue appeared in his hand. He placed it on top of the rock table, and used it as a table cloth before taking out the delicacies he had prepared.

    The eyes of the many kids present glowed with stronger light as the odor from the meat hit their nostrils. They couldn''t help but want to approach the table, but as the man was still in the midst of the preparation, they didn''t want to bother him. Although they grew in the baby cemetery, those kids were strangely aware of when to advance and when to back. Far more sensible than the kids from the central district, who grew sheltered from the danger of the world.

    After counting the heads that were going to eat, he sighed as he didn''t have enough plate. In the end, he decided that they wouldn''t care that much about eating in the same dish; he had less than dozens of small plates; Fell thought that it would probably be an excellent opportunity to share a meal with their friends.

    "In the end, eating a meal with one''s hand on the same plate is one sign of friendship.", he thought before beckoning to the children to approach.

    The many heads present rushed toward the table; before long, they were sitting in front of the table with eyes glued on the fuming pink meat.

    But even in that state. None of them dared to open the dance, and they waited for someone to pick a piece first before digging in too.

    "No need to wait for me kids, dig in already or its turn bad if its cold.", he exclaimed before rubbing the greasy hair of one of them.

    He knew that was what he said wasn''t especially true; cold or hot, they didn''t care as the meal was meat, something they very rarely ate ¡ª not even talking about premium quality meat from the central district. To them, the opportunity was nearly godsend, and they couldn''t help but tenderly look at the plated filled with food.

    They didn''t dare to take their sights from the plates. Afraid that the many dishes would disappear from the table the moment their vision would dart somewhere else. Still, the moment Fell told them to not wait for him, the kids'' hand flew toward the plates filled with meat, and they filled the plate, in front of them, in the blink of an eye.

    Fell couldn''t help but hesitate between laughing or crying the moment he heard a little girl cry.

    Her plate was empty; just as Fell was going to open his lips to ask them to share their meal with her. One of the boys got up with a full plate, and share half of his content with her without batting an eyelid.

    Fell saw through his disguise and noticed that he was bleeding internally from having to give away this much food. But he didn''t show any of that, and that caused a little smile to appear on Fell''s lips.

 Chapter 208 - Ones Origins Part Five

    Fell quietly disappeared in the background. None of the kids even notice his departure, too focused on the hearty meal in front of them. Tonight, it could be said that they had learned for the first time, the sensation of sharing a meal with their peers. The food at hand was sufficient for all of them, and everyone could be seen laughing and sharing what they had.

    Sounds of pearly childish laughter resounded through the usually deadly silent Baby Cemetery, creating a strange displacement between the normally desolated place.

    Fell calmly left the surroundings of the Baby Cemetery, and reappeared in the narrow streets of the Core. His heart was at ease, and he felt that the reactions from those kids were worth the entire trip. At least, before the surroundings of the city turned into a hellish war, those kids managed to get a decent memory: one that would at least ease and warm a little bit their lives.

    "I guess they''re just another reason to fight to the bitter end.", he thought while gazing at the road in front of him. The dirty ground shined with a violet hue due to the many neon there, and the scraps of dirt and plastic bags had mixed with the earth itself- Turning into a strange concrete like material.

    "They didn''t even have the chance to be born in a poor family, and had to fight to gather even get a bite of molded bread¡­"

    He couldn''t help but start thinking that those inequalities didn''t have any legitimacy to exist in a so-called fair society. Sadly, Earthlings'' societies were far from being fair at all. And hidden between the feeling of equity and moral valor was a savage dog eat dog world where the strong reigned on the weak.

    Part of his soul even told him that it wouldn''t be that bad for the city to disappear. But even with that, the survivors and the one who escaped would probably remake the same mistake. And if it wasn''t them, it would be their descendants, and generation after generation the society will degenerate into a state similar to New Casablanca.

    "Is humanity fated to live like this. Unemphatic to its own kind, and only caring for its close one.", he couldn''t help but deny that thought as he knew it wouldn''t be simple. "One hand washes the other¡­", he thought about an idiom he heard a mad drunkard mumble in his intoxication. That sentence meant that for good intention to be reciprocated, someone needed to start the cycle.

    Except that the drunkard had added something after the idiom. "One hand washes the other my ass.", Fell thought that the man might have been swindled by someone he trusted. Repaying gratitude with a swift backstab was a common oddity around here.

    He sighed before shutting down those memories, and with one last thought couldn''t help but come to the conclusion that there were two cases when societies would band together in a fair and just group. One was akin to the current situation New Casablanca was confronted to; a common enemy, strong enough to break through every dispute the citizen ever had together. Forcing them to put aside their differences, or the price they would pay would be worse than death.

    The other case was different, yet also relied on the gathering of power on a single person. A system that had been abandoned for far too long on Earth, where one man mightier and wiser than the other would gather upon his person the sole power to govern the city. Statues akin to a king, but Fell couldn''t help but also find that this governing system was also holed with many flaws, as it would only need for the king to be a complete idiot to ruin the work of his ancestors.

    "The times of kings and queens are vowed to die with the past¡­", he couldn''t help but think with a sigh. "I guess I''m fantasizing too much on them, and those people might not be as sacred as they showed it to their subjects."

    During his thought, he had already crossed dozens of streets and intersection. He had nearly arrived at the place he had come for, before long a decrepit and bizarrely constructed circular-shaped building appeared in the distance. It was a poorly made replica of a famous coliseum on Earth, and would probably burn the eyes of any architect if they laid their sight on it.

    Yet the strange construct had stood tall for years. He had served as a training ground for many brave men, coming here to test their strength with their own fists. This was the place where Fell had first developed his martial heart and was also the place where he picked up Soldier''s Fortune.

    It could be said that without this place, Fell might not have been a sword user and that would have changed a lot of things in his life.

    He couldn''t help but speed up his walking. The misshaped coliseum grew in his sight as he approached, before long, he arrived in front of the gigantic entrance and stepped inside.

    The smell of rust and blood hit his nostrils the moment he arrived in the large reception, causing his blood to accelerate slightly in his veins, and his heartbeat''s pace rose by a slight margin. A smile couldn''t help but take place on his face, and his eyes darted everywhere as he looked for a certain figure. An old man who had helped him debut here, Sifiso''s old yet solid figure appeared in the distance.

    Fell''s disappeared with a ghostlike movement and appeared in front of Gladiator Heaven''s manager.

    "Yo, How are you doing, old man!". His sudden appearance and the random greeting threw the old man off guard, nearly causing him to fall from his cheer.

    Sadly, that wasn''t the case with the young man who had been conversing with Sifiso. He nearly somersaulted on his chair, causing it to break under his weight and the momentum of his movement.

 Chapter 209 - Memory Of The Slums Part One

    "You''re still good when it comes to scaring people, little brat.", cursed Sifiso while redressing his cloth. He couldn''t help but look at Fell and noticed the noticeable changes the youth had gone through during his absence.

    His experienced eyes who had seen many fighters in Gladiator Heaven seemed to pierce through the veil surrounding Fell''s physique. Although he couldn''t see his meridians or dantian, if it was just his body''s structure and core strength, then, it was a simple exercise for the experienced Sifiso.

    After a few seconds, he nodded and added. "Looks like you didn''t just play around, I can see that you''ve grown a lot. What demon caused you to come back to this rotten place?", he asked with a curious expression on his wrinkled face.

    Fell couldn''t help but hesitate for a split second, and looked at the youth next to Sifiso then gazed back at the eccentric old man. Sifiso understood the hidden intent and turned toward the young man and asked him to leave.

    "Give us some privacy Adam.", the youth nodded and got up from his chair. He bowed toward Sifiso and Fell in a short yet polite salute before departing from the reception.

    "Now, tell me what''s going on.", asked Sifiso with a serious expression as he knew that Fell wouldn''t act like this if the matter was pressing.

    Fell didn''t keep the secret for himself anymore as there was no one in the reception hall. He coughed and recollected his thought for a split second before opening his lips.

    "New Casablanca is going to be attacked very soon. We''re not yet aware of the exact time, but it could very well happen in the next few hours. I have managed to rally the central district into one cohesive force to defend the wall of the city, but I''m afraid that we still lack soldiers."

    "Oh!", exclaimed Sifiso with a round mouth.

    "How many soldiers do the enemy have?". He asked while stroking his beard, showing that he wasn''t that affected by the news.

    "Zero." The moment he heard the answer, Sifiso knew that something was wrong, but before he even had the time to ask, Fell continued.

    "The city won''t be attacked by humanoids, or any other type of intelligent creatures but by waves of fierce beasts!"

    Finally, an unusual reaction appeared on the eccentric old man''s face, and he thought deeply for a few seconds before exclaiming. "I can''t oblige anyone from Gladiator Heaven to fight. But¡­"

    "What I can do is help you with preparing a meeting with them. You can explain the dangers at hand, and see if any volunteers want to fight by your sides. Although you didn''t fight for a long time, your name still reverberates with the might of thunder through those walls."

    "Sifiso, you need to know that the beasts are not the only problem we have to face.", then Fell went on and explained the full extent of the information he received from the otherworldly guest.

    When he finished, even the old eccentric couldn''t help but let his smoking pipe escape from his hand. His unbreakable calm, gone.

    An acute noise spread as his wooden pipe hit the floor. Sifiso''s face didn''t show much expression, but his face had turned paler, and his eyes showed the horror he was feeling internally.

    He sat silently for a long time and didn''t utter a single word. Fell didn''t say anything and stood still in front of the old man. He knew that learning the news that your city could disappear from the face of the planet, overnight, could leave anyone in an astonished state.

    Thankfully, the old man wasn''t any weak-willed person, and after a minute or two passed, he managed to recollect himself and got up from his chair in a single motion.

    "Let''s go. I''ll regroup the fighter from every rank. Wait for me in the courtyard; it''ll probably take me five to ten minutes to move through every booth.", he added before leaving toward the dormitory of the fighters.

    Fell watched the figure of the old advanced through the large reception. He couldn''t help but see that the man''s back was much more bent than before, and just this talk session seemed to have taken years for his life span. He couldn''t help but sigh and began walking through the coliseum.

    As he walked, his hand advanced toward the crooked walls, and he felt the rough and coarse surface of the construct through his fingertips. He couldn''t help but memory every speck of information his senses gathered here, as he knew it would be the last time he would come back to this place.

    His step echoed in the silence of the coliseum, and before long, he found himself in the middle of a large courtyard. It was near the place where he enjoyed training and had been the place where he had developed ''Moon Above'' and ''Sun Bellow'' during an epiphany.

    He couldn''t help but sit on the grass and closed his eyes before releasing his senses everywhere around him. Although he had only stayed here for a few weeks at most, Gladiator Heaven had been the place where he had made his debut.

    He couldn''t help but feel at ease just from sitting on the dry patch of grass. He regulated his breathing but didn''t seek a deep meditative state.

    It was the contrary, his mind opened, and he began absorbing as much information gathered by his senses. The random chirps of the few nocturnal birds, the sounds of leaves moving with the wind, the minute buzz from a fly''s wings.

    It didn''t just stop there. His senses continued extending even further and even arrived at the dormitory where resided the numerous gladiators. His extended mind collected many diverse and also similar sounds, akin to a wide net enclosing the entirety of the coliseum in its grasp.

    Time passed quietly, and he turned those pieces of information into an image that solidified in his memory; One that would forever stay with him.

 Chapter 210 - Memory Of The Slums Part Two

    Fell stayed on the floor, savoring the sensations his body was gathering and oblivious to the many individuals that were approaching his position.

    A minute passed, and a few heads appeared near the place where Fell was sitting. As fellow cultivators, they thought he was currently meditating. Thus they stood silently in the courtyard.

    Time passed quietly, and Sifiso still hadn''t come back and was still going through the entirety of the living quarters in the coliseum. The number of individuals in the courtyard continued growing by the minutes, and before long, it attained a number where Fell couldn''t help but open his eyes.

    His eyes glinted under the soft moonlight. And an astonishing expression flashed on the faces of many gladiators; most of them were body cultivators, and although they couldn''t assess Fell''s strength precisely. Their senses didn''t miss the potency of his blood, and to their senses, Fell seemed like a hibernating vicious beast in human form.

    He nodded silently toward the many eyes, rived at his figure, and patiently waited for Sifiso''s arrival before debuting his speech. He could sense the eccentric old man approach the courtyard in a hurried pace; a short minute was all it would take him to arrive in the densely populated yard.

    He saw his old yet robust constitution from afar, and before long, Sifiso stood next to Fell and nodded for him to start.

    "Thanks to everyone for having given me your time. I might have awoken a few from their nights of sleep, but I hope they won''t take it too much at heart.", he joked slightly before regretting. Cold snorts resounded in the courtyard, and many chilling glares were locked on Fell''s figure.

    He didn''t take it at heart and continued with a wry grin on his lips. "New Casablanca is facing a calamity. I''m here to recruit brave and courageous men to fight by our sides, and to defend our city from the incoming attack."

    The group of gladiators was slightly surprised by the news. But most of them didn''t seem to care too much, and a few could even be seen yawning or picking snot from their nostrils. Fell expected this possibility, but he had an idea of how he was going to kindle their spirit. Those guys weren''t the kind to be excited by valors or honor as they had their senses of justices and morals.

    Although they might not ignore money if offered decent sums, they wouldn''t fight with their life in the line and might even escape at the first broken defense.

    "I''m not here to promise you fame, honor, or ranks.", he added without a care for their reaction. A few of the gladiators couldn''t help but mumble under their breath in an annoyed tone.

    "Who the fuck is this kid?"

    "The bastard awoke me from a delicious dream I was having¡­"

    The moment a few gladiators began speaking, a road for dissidence opened up, and the rest followed. Fell''s voice died down, and the numerous voices of the gladiators reverberated in the courtyard.

    "What did you eat for dinner, Joe?"

    "What to go take a walk in the pink district?"

    "When is your next match, Billy?"

    In fact, Fell had since long stopped his speech and was looking at them with a dumbfounded gaze. He didn''t know if it was the fact he was dressed nicely, or if Sifiso had said anything. But he found that the gladiators were particularly dismissive toward him.

    He contained himself for a few seconds, but his nerves got the better of him, and without any hesitation, his pores opened up. His blood coursed through his veins, a sharp will attached itself to the calm breeze of midnight, and the temperature of their surrounding dropped a few degrees in a second.

    "What the hell?!", exclaimed a few gladiators before their sight redirected toward Fell.

    "Want to fight kid?", brazen glare ignited in the dimly lighted courtyard.

    Sifiso couldn''t help but have expected this kind of scene. For people like them, trying to recruit them to a battle would be harder than hiring actual princess. He looked at the scene with interest on his face and took a few steps back to secure a good view of the stage.

    Fell didn''t respond to the gladiator''s invitation and only kept rising the pressure he was releasing. Sharp crackling resounded in the courtyard, and small lightning arcs began appearing around Fell.

    His Heaven and Earth energy coursed through his veins, and with every rotation, the intensity of the lightning he was releasing rose.

    He had decided that he would make them pay the same price he had to swallow, a swift and clean disrespect to their pride as fighters. With a quick shift of his senses, he noticed that none of them had attained the higher ranks of the first realm in their cultivation.

    "I''ll bully them into listening what I have to say.", he thought before releasing the entire pressure of his three cultivation bases.

    A deafening bestial roar escaped from his body; Little Gold had sensed Fell''s thought and didn''t hesitate at all before opening his tiny mouth and left a long roar escape from his lips.

    A few gladiators were forced to their knees with the simple action. But the majority of them, although shaken, stood still on the ground, solid in their will and footing. None of them could speak, but their expression showed that they wouldn''t bow to the youth in front of them.

    The strange contest of disrespect had started with them; the pride deep in their bone would do anything possible to not loose in front of the man.

    Although what he had showed them clearly intended that he was vastly stronger than them, they firmly believed that he wouldn''t be capable of dominating them all of them.

    "Energy isn''t enough?", thought Fell with a devious smile on his lips. "Let us see how you will feel when basking in my sword intent!"

 Chapter 211 - Memory Of The Slums Part Three

    A vast amount of sword intent filled the courtyard, and separated into bits that attached themselves on the standing gladiators. The fighters tenacious will was tested by Fell''s sharp and deadly intent.

    Their solid will, soon began flinching under the incessant grinding, and accompanied with the pressure from the lightning sparks that clapped around in the courtyard. Another wave of knees hitting the floor resounded, and only dozens of gladiator were still on their feet.

    Fell couldn''t help but be surprised, and he doubled the pressure he was releasing as he now was testing their limits. The more he tried to bend them, and the more they showed him that they wouldn''t flinch. His avarice would surface, and make him want them as soldier to defend the city.

    Although they were fellow humans, and cultivator, he couldn''t help but see their true assets shine in the incoming war. True men of steels that wouldn''t back down if they choose to engage in the war with their own will.

    His action might seem counterproductive, but the coliseum''s culture was one where the strong were praised as kings and revered by all. "Although they might feel humiliated, I can only take the risk and force them down to their knees.", he thought in a flash of consciousness before raising the pressure yet again.

    "Those bastards are the one who started this first!", his blood boiled down his veins. And a subtle yet solid wave of steam appeared near his body.

    The gladiators who manage to keep standing were already at their limit. With the repetitive dragonic howl from Little Gold, and the constant sword intent grinding their will, they were already nearly wasted. With sore muscles, and clattering teeth, they were only hanging with their prides and envy to topple over Fell''s intention of humiliating them.

    Sifiso was astonished to see his prideful gladiator''s figure fall one after the other. If it was just one of them being force to that state, it wouldn''t have surprised him that much as he still knew that Fell was strong. But here, nearly eighty percent of the gladiator were eating the dust on the ground, and the twenty remaining percent weren''t in a better state.

    Their constitution paled at the second, and a few had their fists clenched that they bled. But that was just what was apparent on the outside of their body''s.

    In fact, the standing gladiators were feeling an excruciating nausea assault their mind. And the constant roars, and claps of thunders accompanied with the sharp sword intent assaulting their body made it even harder.

    Although Fell wasn''t using his sword intent do deal physical damage to their bodies. The pain that came with his sword intent was very real to the brain, and would leave them trembling, most of the them in the brink of falling apart.

    "Their tenacity is top tier.", he assessed while gazing at the dozen remaining gladiator. "Time to see how they fair against the pressure from my body."

    As soon as he spoke, he executed himself and another pressure escaped from his pores, overlapping itself on the other existing one. This one was different than the other, in the sense that the gladiator felt that their weight had tripled in an instant. Beds of sweats appeared all over their pale complexion, and before long three gladiator fell to the ground.

    Sounds of haggard gasp, and pained panting resounded through the silent courtyard. The gladiators on the ground had darkened expression on their faces, and couldn''t come to accept the harsh truth they were experiencing. Loosing in such stead, against the sole pressure coming from someone wasn''t easy to accept for a bunch of people who spend their days fighting.

    "They''ll accept it¡­", thought Fell as he gazed at their faces. With one last shove of pressure, the wind moved quietly and shoved slightly at the bodies of the trembling gladiators. And like broken leaves that quietly hovered in midair, they fell on the ground at the same time, gasping for air as if they''ve been underwater for the whole time.

    Fell couldn''t help but flash a satisfied smile on his face, and just as he was going to continue his speech, a loud voice cut him and spread through the courtyard.

    "Quite the nice flex! Its not bad to teach those bastards some discipline."

    Fell turned toward the newcomer, and his expression changed as he turned serious. The moment he saw the man, a shiver traversed his body and he nearly drew his blade out. It wasn''t that he was afraid or anything, but the man radiated such an amount of battle intent that it triggered Fell''s own.

    The man, with a long head of cascading crimson hair that dropped on his shoulder, gazed at Fell with a smile that wasn''t really one. Their gaze interlocked for a long time before the red haired man turned and looked at the mass of gladiators laying on the ground.

    "Well it''s not a bad idea to show them your strength if you want them to follow you.", he said with a matter of fact tone. "But those block heads won''t follow you to war just because you''re stronger than them."

    "A few might be impressed, and might follow you in the hope of befriending you. But ultimately, they won''t give their whole being in the battle like you want them to do.", he added before walking toward Fell. "I''ve heard your speech in the central district, I have to say that  it was quite a passionate one. The thought of a mob of beast ravaging the street of that immaculate city caused my blood to boil in my veins."

    Fell looked at the man with puzzlement on his face, and before long exclaimed in a questioning tone. "If you didn''t leave, should I assume that your going to fight to defend this city?"

    The man looked at Fell as if he was looking at an idiot, and he turned toward one of the man on the ground before asking him.

 Chapter 212 - Memory Of The Slums Part Four

    "He truly is dumb, right?", before turning toward Fell and continuing. "Well, that''s obvious. Why would I run from the biggest opportunity of my life? Fighting hundreds of vicious beasts isn''t something you can do every day."

    "You''re not afraid of dying?", asked Fell.

    "Aren''t we all?", responded the man with a smirk. "Although to us, we''ve risen from the mass through fists and blood. Why would we evade the incoming war?", he then turned around and showed the many men on the floor. "Just know that they are in!"

    His voice boomed, and Fell couldn''t help but gradually pieces the much information he had gotten from the man. "So he is their leaders¡­", he couldn''t help but think before looking at the man a few times. And as he gazed at him, he couldn''t but feel that he had met him many times in the central district, and although they had never talked, he had always felt this presence.

    A thick and potent smell of blood flowed out of the red haired man, and the more he stood near the man. The strongest that stench would get and that smell wouldn''t go unnoticed, even in the vast central district.

    At some point, he couldn''t help but take a few sniffs, followed by a strange action that left the individual in the courtyard dumbfounded. Fell closed his eyes and executed his blood related awareness technique, Blood Perception. Seconds passed in silence, and a short period after that, he reopened his eyes, and the way he looked at the red haired man changed.

    "This man is the one who owned the blood treasure¡­", he thought in his mind without leaving the man from his sight. "A pity the treasure already has a master."

    The moment he had executed his technique, an enormous mass of blood essence had appeared in the middle of the courtyard. Its density and potency were strong to the point where the blood essence from the other individual was completely washed out and didn''t even appear in Fell''s senses.

    Even the red haired man''s own blood essence was masked by what the blood treasure radiated in energy. Fell couldn''t help but be shocked that the thing he had been looking for had appeared in front of him. His sight crossed with the red haired man, and without expressing a single word, he knew that his thought had been read.

    A smile appeared on the red haired man''s face, and his lips opened. "Oh, you''ve also got this kind of perceptive power.", a very apparent bloodlust was present in his words.

    What was strange was that Fell noticed that he was the only one who heard those words. Sifiso and the other gladiators who had recovered didn''t hear anything.

    "Should we talk in private?", exclaimed Fell with a large smile. His exposed fangs flashed with a minute burst of killing intent.

    Although he knew that the man wasn''t his enemies, he had come to learn that those bastards from the coliseum preferred fights over talks. He simply guessed that it was the same for the red haired man, and frankly speaking, that also suited Fell quite well.

    The red haired man and Fell''s figure moved at the same time, completely disappearing from the courtyard. An ugly expression appeared on Sifiso''s face, and he couldn''t help but let a long sigh escape from his lips. His back curved slightly as it bent even more, his footsteps slowed down as he made his way out of the courtyard.

    Too much had happened for Sifiso tonight, and the weight he had unconsciously been shouldering all of his life had started wearing him down. But that was just a fact, one that wasn''t taken into account by Fell and the red haired men.

    They reappeared in a wasteland, where a building had recently been taking down. The place was a few dozen meters away from the coliseum and wasn''t very frequented by the citizens of the Core. Red and Fell had chosen this place to avoid being bothered by anyone, and to avoid destroying buildings that people actually used as living places.

    Fell looked at the red haired man with a smile on his face before exclaiming in a loud voice. "I am actually quite intrigued by the treasure you have, mind sharing a little information on it?"

    A long hearty laughter escaped from the red haired man, a flash of murderous intent glinted in his eyes, and he responded in a calm voice.

    "I don''t even know your name, yet you are already asking for my secrets?", he said with a grin on his lips before stepping forward and adding. "I guess you''re truly a native of this shit town."

    His figure disappeared, and a cloud of dust rose from where he had stood. The next moment he reappeared, his fist had turned red, and Fell could sense an enormous amount of blood essence circulate in his body toward his clenched fist. Soldier''s Fortune flew out of its scabbard to respond to the move in the blink of an eye.

    Fell''s sword drew a semi circular movement in the air and connected with the red haired man''s fist during the mid air strokes. Time seemed to go to a standstill, and Fell redirected the man''s move with ease.

    "I guess you didn''t force to their knee with just words¡­", the red haired man couldn''t help but exclaimed before his expression turned serious.

    His fine, and long red hairs rose the air without any wind movement, and his cloth began moving in sync with them. A tremendous amount of energy was being stored inside of his muscular body. Fell swiftly recognized that the man wasn''t joking at all, and that the next attack would be a serious one where he would be testing his own limit.

    "You want to play it like this?", he mumbled with Soldier''s Fortune disappearing back in his spatial pocket. Fell''s skin popped with many veins as his body cultivation was release to its utmost faculties. He had always liked playing in the opponent ground, and today he wouldn''t change his style with his style.

 Chapter 213 - Memory Of The Slums Part Five

    Two fists flew toward each other at the same time. If anyone had seen the scene, they would have only glimpsed at the afterimage of the two fighters. The air whipped and snapped at their every movement, and the ground trembled under their solid footsteps.

    Right after the first exchange, Fell came to understand that the red-haired man was one strong body cultivator. It was the first time in his life, fighting someone who surpassed him with body cultivation, and every aftershock of their hit would leave Fell a bitter taste in the back of the throat.

    The two opened exchanged dozens of fists, and kept going. The number of attacks exchanged soon broke through the hundredth, and finally, they separated and stood a few meters away from each other.

    "I guess you''re quite the real deal.", said the red-haired man with a bloodied grin on his lips.

    "Can say the same to you.", responded Fell while spitting a mouthful of blood.

    Fell''s right hand could be seen trembling, and the skin near his fist was red as if he had been smashing his fist against steel plates. "Such a hard body¡­", thought Fell while lightly swaying his right hand.

    The two opponents stepped forward, and clouds of dust billowed in the wasteland. The strength of their legs caused the ground under them to splinter, and to open up in two as if it was fragile clay. Their figures would disappear from one place and reappear in a different corner of the wasteland.

    They fought with every inch of physical strength that laid in their muscles and traded one fist with another without any hesitation. Their faces, soon turned, bloodied and Fell nearly had teeth knocked out

    Sounds of laughter exploded. At the same time, the ground under them ruptured. The wind screamed at every movement from the pair of body cultivators, and the impact of their fists produced a sound similar to two colliding trains made of steel. A cacophony of sight and sound took place in the deserted place

    Time passed, and with each minute that flowed, hundredth of moves would be shared between the two opponents. Their savage fighting style turned the wasteland in the Core into an apocalyptic scenery. Short mountains had risen from the Earth, and pits created with a move from their limbs.

    Dozens of minutes passed. But to the two fighters, it felt as if not even twenty-second had passed after the start of the fight.

    The intensity of their attack rose with the length of the fight; at some point, the red-haired man grabbed Fell by the arm and threw him out of the wasteland.

    The young cultivator''s figure flew out of the ample deserted space, and his body began falling toward a narrow street close to the coliseum. Fell recovered himself and somersaulted on the ground a few times to reduce the momentum accumulated in his body. The moment his body came to a stop, he heard a hearty burst of laughter, and he raised his head and put his guard.

    "You''re good, you''re good!". Exclaimed the red-haired man with arms raised in the air; his limbs snapped forward, turning into shadows that encompassed the area in front of Fell.

    A drilling noise reverberated in the street, and the ground under Fell broke down to bits as he began retreating with a raised guard.

    The savage and destructive man pushed Fell out of the narrow street.  The pairs arrived in a vast plaza where the coliseum was constructed, sounds of footsteps resounded between the barrage of punches they sent.

    Before long, the numerous gladiators had arrived in the place, with Sifiso among them who couldn''t help but look at the fight with a strange gaze.

    After only a few seconds in the plaza. A wall was taken down, and Fell inadvertently threw the red-haired men into an old boutique. When the man flew out of the shop, he head-butted the young cultivator and caused him to be thrown straight toward a small habitation.

    Their surroundings were breaking down at a fast pace. One wall after another was destroyed and fell down with loud thuds, raising gigantic billows of dust in the plaza. At some point and due to their fights, a significant layer of dust had accumulated on the ground. Sifiso had an unsightly expression on his face, and he couldn''t help but advance and speak in a loud tone.

    "You bastard, you''re going to destruct the last remaining standings shits in this town.", his voice boomed through the plaza and managed to enter the fighters'' ears.

    They looked around them for a second. And Fell flashed an indecent and shameful, self-deprecating grin on his face, while the red-haired man didn''t show any expression. He looked around, and unwillingness to stop flashed in his eyes before stopping. Even with his strength, in his heart, he couldn''t ignore Sifiso''s request and unwillingly stopped fighting.

    "You''re strong, but I don''t think you will beat me without using that sword.", said the red-haired man toward Fell in a manner of fact tone. A glimpse of pride escaped from his eyes, and it could be seen that he knew that his body was stronger than Fell''s physique.

    Although the strength and tenacity of their body weren''t that different, Fell''s body had a certain, sharp trait in it, while the red-haired man was more explosive and well rounded in every aspect. His speed, power, and endurance weren''t to be belittled, and Fell was absolutely certain that the man had hidden his card deep.

    What he had shown him was only the visible part of the iceberg. What was hidden under his sea of potential could only be revealed when the red-haired man would fight with his life on the line.

    "Huh¡­", grunted Fell while contracting his back. He wiggled around a little, and manage to dislodge himself from a wall he had smashed in. The steel-plated wall had a large dent in it, the size of Fell''s figure, and was bent at a near forty-five-degree angle.

 Chapter 214 - Last Line Part One

    Fell patted the dust out of his clothes and calmly walked toward Sifiso. Right as he arrived in front of the eccentric manager of Gladiator''s Heaven, he heard the red-haired man speak to him yet again.

    "We will meet again on the battlefield. Don''t worry, and I always hold my promises.", he added before disappearing through a dark alley.

    Sifiso turned back and gazed at the street the red-haired man had taken. His gaze stood on the dimly lighted alley for a few seconds, his eyes glowed as he couldn''t put his thought on the red-haired man''s plan. At some point, Fell raised his shoulder toward the sky and began walking toward Sifiso.

    "In the end, he''s still an ally if he comes to defend the city.", he thought before throwing the matter with the red gladiators in his thought.

    Sifiso looked at Fell with a look in his eyes that asked if he was satisfied. He had come here to ask for help, and even if it didn''t go as smoothly as he thought, he still managed to get a promise of support from the fighters of Gladiator Heaven. And that still serves as a significant victory.

    "Thanks for the help Old Sifiso.", Said Fell while patting away the last bits of duts that hat gathered on his clothes.

    A smile appeared on the old man''s face. With wrinkles popping near his eyes and cheeks, Fell couldn''t help but see the old man''s face turn cute. He couldn''t help but feel that those types of thoughts were definitely wrong, thankfully before he had the time to think anymore, Sifiso spoke in a matter of fact tone.

    "That was all your doing. I''ve only opened up a door, and you''ve taken it. It was the same for when you were a gladiator here. I''ve only given you a sword, and you''ve gathered the attention of every fighter, and broke through every rank, pushing through with unbreakable momentum toward the top."

    "I''m sure you''ve done the same in the central district. You might not have noticed it before, but one of your strongest assets is one you gather people''s attention on you."

    Sifiso didn''t break sight for a long time with Fell. And before long, he turned around with slow steps and added before departing. "My bones have grown weary with time. I feel that the incoming calamity isn''t as simple as that."

    "I have asked from help through the network of the other Gladiator Heaven. I doubt they''ll manage to send help before the attack arrives, but one can''t loose from trying.", his voice turned distant as his body began disappearing inside of the Coliseum.

    The few gladiators who were here threw a few gazes at Fell before disappearing from the street, leaving Fell alone. He couldn''t help but notice the hidden respect and admiration that had taken place in their faces.

    After everyone departed, he stood in place for a long period of time, and only resumed his steps after he recollected his thoughts. This journey to the Core had left a strange flavor in his thoughts, one that stank of morose nostalgia.

    Fell couldn''t help but shiver, and threw away the feeling before resuming his steps. The soft light coming from the fake image of the moon that hung in the sky lit up the road in front of him.

    An hour passed, and he toured the streets of the Core and ingrained the image in his thought for one last time. The music coming from a few clubs didn''t help his mood, and it even caused him to feel saddened when he heard a mellow tune. His leg moved mindlessly, while his thought was focused on the feeling that delved in his heart, and before long, he arrived in front of a familiar door.

    His hand shoved the door of Pig''s Paw, and he entered the enclosure of the bar. His eyes darted left and right, and he quickly found Moha''s figure lying on a sofa not far from the counter. The phone grabbed tightly in his hand was still on, and the continuous rhythmic beeps didn''t seem to pierce through the veil of Moha''s dreams.

    Fell approached the man and took out a random sheet he had in his spatial pocket. He casually dropped the sheet on the body of the sleeping old man and threw one last gaze at him before departing from the bar. His footsteps accelerated when he left through the rotten door of the bar, and he took the direction to regain the highway that led to the central district.

    As he began departing, his thoughts were mixed, and he wanted to stay longer but was afraid to find that the attack had already happened. After crossing a few streets, he couldn''t help but dart in a run and turned into a ghostly figure that dashed upward and arrived in a roof.

    Under the moon, he dashed through one roof after another with ease. "Going through the roofs is definitely faster¡­", he thought as he noticed that he could go in a straight line. Before long, he noticed a long road in the distance, and with two lengthy jumps that crossed hundreds of meters, he arrived on a large highway.

    He turned his neck and gazed one last time at the silent slum that was still lighted up with hundreds of multicolor neons lights. He shut down his heart and stepped forward before disappearing. As soon as he began running on the highway, his speed attained its peak, and he turned into a human form racing car that broke through the speed of sound and kept growing faster.

    The numerous factories at his sides blurred, his surroundings turned into straight line due to the speed of his movement. Before long, he noticed a solitary car dashing through the road. He quickly crossed the distance that separated the two and arrived next to it.

    He slowed the rotation of his steps and kicked at the ground. He landed on the back of the car with a loud thud and noticed the pair of men and women that had gone in the mother factory.

    "Yo.", Said Fell with a nod before sitting in the place he had used during the trip from the central district.

 Chapter 215 - Last Line Part Two

    The pair heard a minute sound in the back and felt that someone had hoarded their vehicle.

    They swiftly turned toward the back part of the car and heard Fell''s greeting. They relaxed their senses and sat back in their places with a sigh. Fell noticed the fatigue in their faces, and couldn''t help but think about the time that passed since they separated.

    He didn''t know the exact specifics of what they did inside of the mother factory. But from their weary faces, he couldn''t help but imagine that It must''ve been a night filled with programing the internal system of the factories.

    "How was the operation?", asked Fell after drinking a bottle he had taken from his spatial pocket.

    The man opened his eyes, and huge black circles hung under his eyelids. He received the bottle of water from Fell and responded after ushering a sigh.

    "Troublesome, and tiring but we''ve done the job. We''ve come up against a few troubleshooting experiences with the system, but a few hours of coding managed to help us redesign it. You see, Mother Factories weren''t exactly meant for the purpose of executing a mass explosion."

    As soon as he began speaking, his eyes lit up, and he seems to be revived from the realm of the dead. Regardless of his tiredness or his sleepiness, Fell couldn''t help but recognize passion in the man''s eyes. As for the woman accompanying them, she didn''t seem to be made of the same cut as the man, and she continued sleeping to recover from the night of work.

    The road toward the central district was yet again traversed in one fell swoop with the engine screaming at their maximum output of power. The tires were made of a special material, the numerous rotations of the wheels were supported due to that. And even if smells of burned tires, and the long trail left on the road, they seemed to be resistant and could keep going like this for a long time.

    Before long, they arrived in front of the first place where they had stopped. It was the Mother Factory closest to the central district; the vehicle stopped in their tracks when they arrived there.

    From afar, he had noticed two small figures waiting by the side of the road. And as he arrived in front of them, he recognized the feature of the other pair of individuals that had gone inside the Mother Factory. Their faces, a mask of tiredness from the numerous past hours of work.

    They silently grabbed the stuff they used to reprogram the Mother Factory''s system and hopped inside of the vehicle rejoining Fell and the other pair. The group was finally complete, and the journey toward the central district was resumed. The engine roared, and the wheels turned into incandescent suns that rotated at max speeds.

    Before long, just as they could see the walls of the central district from afar with the many lighted building and skyscraper. Fell couldn''t help but ask a question; his youthful yet calm voice broke the silence that had taken hold of the vehicle during the last dozens of minutes.

    "What about the other highways?", he asked with his eyes flashing. Puzzlement appeared in the faces of the individuals that opened their eyes. And one of them, the passionate one named Charles, answered in an unhurried tone.

    "If what you mean by that is if there are other teams like this one. Then, yes."

    "The other highways that led to the Core have been taken care of by other teams. There exist eight Mother Factories in the Core, and we have taken care of the two accessible from West Highway."

    An expression of comprehension flashed on Fell''s face, and he left an understanding "oh" escape from between his closed lips.

    He spoke a little bit with the man name Charles, and through conversing about the mundane matter of the city. He killed the last few minutes of the journey and expressed his farewells when they passed through the tunnel that led to the central district.

    The light around them disappeared, and Fell could feel many electromagnetic signals pass through his body. He turned a blind eye to it as he knew it was just the normal procedure of the city. Before he even noticed, the luminous sky of New Casablanca appeared in his eyes the moment they left the tunnel.

    At the first intersection, he nodded toward the silent team of researchers and jumped out of the vehicle without waiting for their answers. Only Charles noticed his departure, and he raised his hand and flashed Fell silent good luck with a thumb up before falling back to his sleep.

    The moment Fell''s leg touched the floor, he turned into a blurred ghostly figure and traversed the city in the direction of the police department. Under the hurry, he darted through the few streets that separated him from the police center in a minute. He only slowed down when he arrived a few meters away from the front door of the police office.

    As it was nearly dawn, he couldn''t help but have his ears drawn to the sound that escaped from the police department. He stepped inside, and a familiar brouhaha assaulted his senses, the same heads were still latched on their office. The faces, albeit awaken, were clearly tired and the all-nighters the officer had pulled was physically wearing them down.

    A lot of them didn''t even notice Fell, who was traversing the room. It was only when he arrived in front of the elevator that he felt a sight latch on his back, he turned around before penetrating inside of the metallic box. He noticed that It was the man that he had met on the last floor, right before he participated in the reunion of the higher-ups to prepare the defense of the city.

    He greeted the man who threw him a half-assed salute. The jaded man then turned around and continued whatever he had been doing while ignoring Fell.

 Chapter 216 - Last Line Part Three

    Fell pressed the dial that led to the lowest floor, and the next moment he felt his body ascend through the story. "I''m not even sure if they''re still there."

    His ascension stopped, and he traversed the corridor that led him to the wooden doors of the conference room. He breathed deeply, collected his thoughts, and pushed the door open. A flash of puzzlement appeared on his face, and the image of the conference room confirmed what he had picked up with his senses.

    "Where are they?", he thought before scanning the building with his blood perception. He remembered the blood essence of a few higher-ups; if they were present inside of the police department, he would notice the signs of their blood essence without any difficulty.

    He scanned through the hundreds of individual presents but didn''t get any result from the search. "AI, call Walter.", he ordered before picking a random chair where he sat.

    It took a few seconds of beep for the other side to pick up the call. "Oh, Fell, you''re back?"

    "Uhmm", nodded the young cultivator while rubbing his eyebrows.

    "Anything new?", asked Fell in a hurry.

    "Yes, we have picked up the signal from the satellites. Mass movement of living organisms have been detected not far from the walls of our cities. They are approaching at a fast pace. According to our calculation, they will arrive in New Casablanca in Four hours."

    A sharp breath made its way down to Fell''s throat, and he sat silently without answering Walter. The deadline had dropped, and the calamity was approaching their doorsteps at a fast pace.

    "I''ll get myself ready. Where do I join you when I finish?"

    "You won''t have to travel far as you will help in the defense on the west door of the city.", responded Walter before adding. "I need to leave you, and there is a lot of preparation that needs to be dealt with."

    "I see, good luck.", responded the youth before closing the line of communication.

    "AI, set the alarm to be ready in two hours.", he ordered before getting up from the chair. He retraced his steps and moved inside of the corridor before taking the elevator. The next minute, he was back in the street of the city outside of the police department.

    "Should I make a journey back? Or should I trust his capacity in making it in time as he promised?", he thought for a few seconds. His leg nearly kicked on the ground under him, sending him streaking back toward the Core. But, he refrained himself as he didn''t know if an event unexpected by all would happen.

    He turned around, looked at the police department, and stepped back in. He gazed at the last few officers that were making a logistical plan and approached one of them. The tired officer was in the midst of leaving his desk, but he heard the steps approaching him, and he noticed the black-haired youth walk in his direction.

    "Hello, can I help you?", asked the police officer with a polite tone.

    Fell hesitated for a second as he saw the advanced state of fatigue the man was in. He didn''t feel like abusing the man''s politeness and was going to retrace his steps and ask someone else. But he heard creaking and squeaking noises escape from the desk; His eyes were drawn toward the radio, and his lips opened up before Fell asked a question.

    "Can this make a call to the slums?". The police officer who''s hand was moving toward the radio equipment stopped in his track, and gazed at the black-haired youth for a moment before nodding.

    "Can you help me set up one?"

    The man nodded another time, and he sighed before sitting back on his chair. "Which frequency do you want me to connect you with?", the man asked after pressing a few buttons on his equipment.

    "Craps¡­", cursed Fell in a low tone. He had forgotten about that fact before asking for a call, and he didn''t know any of the frequencies that Moha or Sifiso might use. "Try to check if there is anyone in the slums that is currently using a radio.", an slightly dark face appeared on the face of the police officer.

    Fell still wanted to try as it would help him gain time. Even with his speed, it would again take him more than an hour to arrive in the slums, and making the journey twice without much rest wasn''t the best idea; especially when he had just acquired the potential hour of arrival of the beast wave.

    Despite his envy of closing his eyes one last time to rest, the man greeted his teeth a began moving his equipment from one frequency after another. After passing through dozens of empty channels, Fell couldn''t help but tap on the shoulder of the man and asked for his seat.

    "You can go, I think I can use manage with this equipment."

    A glimpse of joy flashed on the officer''s face, and he didn''t make Fell wait long before giving him his seat. He grabbed the coat lying on the chair and grabbed his wallet before darting out of the police department. His steps were unsteady, and the moment he left his desk, his eyes began dozing off from fatigue.

    "This shouldn''t be a difficult task¡­", ushered Fell before grabbing the headset resting on the table. His hand moved toward his head, and he dropped the headset on his head before focusing on the dials in front of him.

    He began turning the dial used to change the frequency, focused on the sounds that were sent to his ears while moving from one channel to another. At first, his movement wasn''t precise, and the frequencies he picked were empty, with only a grating grazing noise in response.

    But after five minutes, he managed to hear a complete sentence.

    "What do you mean by the line of transport have been cut, Jack?", Fell''s eyes opened in surprise.

 Chapter 217 - Last Line Part Four

    "Jackpot!", mumbled Fell who couldn''t believe his ears. Even if the voice was changed due to passing through a microphone, and was slightly different from his voice in reality. Fell immediately recognized Moha''s voice.

    His hand swiftly moved towards the equipment, and he pressed a dial with a microphone image drawn on it. He approached the thin black colored microphone and coughed twice near it.

    "Who the fuck is that?", Moha''s coarse voice broke through Fell''s ears.

    Another cough resounded, and Moha heard Fell''s youthful voice resound in Pig''s Paw. "It''s me, old man."

    "Why the fuck are you contacting me through a radio?" his voice was filled with his inner puzzlement, and he asked another question. "Did you already leave the slums?"

    "Hmm", Nodded Fell before explaining. "I''ve met with Sifiso and had taken care of recruiting the gladiators. The problem is, when I came back here, I''ve learned that the beast waves will arrive in less than four hours.". A gasp reverberated from the other side of the line, and Fell continued as he knew that Moha wouldn''t interrupt him. "With pressing matters like these, I can''t afford to leave the city, and I needed a way to contact the core from here."

    "In short, I''m going to need your help Moha. Run toward Gladiator''s Heaven and tell Sifiso that the beast will be here soon and that we will need help."

    Moha stayed silent for a few seconds. After learning the news of the attack a few hours earlier, he hadn''t expected for it to happen this early. He didn''t react for a few seconds before mumbling in a calm voice, "I''ll take care of it, trust me!".

    "I know, old man.", responded Fell. His hand moved toward the dials of the radio, and just as he pressed on the button to quit the frequency channel, he heard Moha''s last sentence in his headsets.

    "Good luck, kid. Try not to die.", the message might sound strange. But Fell could sense the urgency hidden in Moha''s voice.

    He got up from the desk with a smile on his face. "I won''t die, old man. I definitely won''t!", he thought with steady confidence. His steps quickly took him out of the police department, and he began walking toward the place from where he would defend the city.

    His figure darted toward the West. After traversing the streets of the central district, he arrived in front of a gigantic wall of steel. The wall was nearly hundreds of meters tall and was smooth beyond compare. As Fell approached the city''s immaculate defensive wall, he was surprised to see his figure get reflected on it.

    "Climbing over this will be a hassle for any normal beast.", he observed the walls that were used in the defense of the city. He couldn''t help but notice the clear difference that existed between it and the normal steel they used to build the central district''s buildings. "It even seems to be made to be slippery; there literally exists no grip or chip to climb over this wall¡­", he thought while feeling the chilling cold material of the wall.

    His gaze extended past the line of the tall wall that extended around the surface of New Casablanca. "Do I have to climb this to regroup with Walter?", he looked at the height of the wall with a pensive gaze. "This surely isn''t the only way. I''ll walk around here a little bit, I''m sure I only need to look around, and I''ll find a way to climb there."

    The young cultivator''s thought soon happened to be true. And after a few minutes of steady walking, he happened to find what looked like an entrance in the smooth wall. Just when he nearly thought that he was going to have to climb the difficult smooth surface of the wall, in a hidden spot, the reflective wall disappeared and was replaced by a dark and mysterious entrance.

    He approached it, and the dark entrance turned into a fully lighted tunnel. He stepped inside with confidence, and before he walked more than a few steps, several clicks resounded, and a small cabin appeared on his left. The walls had opened smoothly, and without even noticing their movement, Fell found the new passage on his left.

    He stepped inside, and just as the thought that the cabin was similar to an elevator, he felt movement in his surroundings. The familiar sensation told him that the cabin was currently moving upward and judging from the cabin''s speed. It wouldn''t take him for more than two or three minutes to attain the top of the wall.

    "I guess this city still had those kinds of surprises.", he exclaimed while thinking about the peculiar architectures. "I wonder if they are aware of my presence? They surely are.", he responded at his own question before looking around in the cabin.

    His eyes darted left and right, and not even a few seconds after that thought, he finished his inspection. Nothing off the chart was found, and he came to the conclusion that the cabin''s capacities were solely movement. It didn''t even seem that there was any camera or lenses; when closing his eyes, he didn''t feel any type of signal around the cabin.

    Except for the electromagnetic energy he senses that came from the electricity that powered the object, he didn''t feel any special frequency, be it radio waves or the six other types of waves used by mankind.

    "I''m definitely not spied here, but I''ve got a gut feeling that they are aware of my presence here.", he thought while remembering the entrance that appeared out of nowhere. "I''ve got a little hunch that those kinds of entrances are controlled by them; it would also explain why I felt that the passage was placed in a strange position."

    The young cultivator wasn''t really wrong. And the entrance in the smooth, reflective wall he had passed through was close to many buildings used as housings.

 Chapter 218 - Last Line Part Five

    He lost himself in his thought, and only noticed the end of the ascension when the elevator''s door opened up in front of him. The moment the door opened, he felt a brisk, windy current assault his body. The wind''s strength even forced him to splint his eyes in reflex, but after a few seconds, he was used to it.

    He stepped out of the elevator, and the door behind him smoothly closed with a sharp mechanical sound. He turned around and managed to see the moment when the elevator disappeared back inside the wall. "Hmm¡­", a grunt escaped his throat, and he stepped forward toward the other side of the wall.

    His heart rate accelerated slightly; as the view of the wilderness outside the city appeared, in front of his eyes.

    His footsteps accelerated, and he shortly arrived on the other side of the thick wall. A vast mass of green appeared in his vision; forests and landmasses extended past his eyesight, a real picture of wilderness.

    If it weren''t for the excessively long road that led to the city, he would have sworn that New Casablanca existed in the middle of the wilderness. That type of thinking wasn''t false, and Fell wasn''t aware that he wasn''t far from reality. Except that humankind had since long gained mastery over nature, and few things on Earth existed out of their realm of control.

    In those days, only the depth of the planet and the dark oceanic floors weren''t fully grasped by humanity.

    A sense of freedom assaulted Fell''s mind, and a feeling of jumping out of the wall took his gut. His feet dangerously approached the border of the wall, and the strong wind pushed at his back. A soft usher reverberated in his mind, "Why don''t you run?".

    "You can easily jump out of the wall and dash through this forest."

    "Didn''t you want to explore the surface of Earth?"

    The wind turned stronger, and a brusque windy current assaulted his back. Part of his feet had only left the surface of the wall, and he only needed to tilt his body slightly, and his figure would free fall out of the city.

    In the middle of his thoughts, filled with demonic temptation that whispered him to escape from the incoming trouble. He heard sounds of footsteps behind him; the young cultivator turned his neck and noticed an officer dressed in military clothing.

    He calmly gazed at the man, his thought still filled with the sudden desire to flee away. His gaze pierced through the man and continued past him toward the city.

    Thud! Fell''s heart skipped a beat, and a grandiose view of the city pierced through the darkness that assaulted his mind.

    He swallowed his saliva and clenched his fist with utmost strength. His hands trembled in a minute yet distinct manner, but the military officer didn''t notice any of that and seemed to have stopped breathing due to Fell''s gaze.

    "What the hell is wrong with this kid?", thought the man who didn''t dare to speak.

    Jamie was an officer who had worked here, defending the walls of the city for the past few years. His chief officer had ordered him to attend to the need of the cultivator who was going to assist them.

    But the moment he arrived, he saw the man standing at the border of the wall. A single shove to the back or one burst of wind could send him tumbling down a deadly one hundred meter fall.

    The moment he was going to advise him to stand a few meters back, he met his gaze and forced himself to swallow his words.

    He had faced many so-called powerful individuals before; One Man Army masters that could change the course of a battle by themselves. But, it was different from this black-haired youth, the sharpness hidden in his gaze made the back of his neck tingle, and he unintentionally moved, taking a step back.

    Fell lost himself in the sight of his city. A cleansing happened in his thoughts, and the idea of leaving the city disappeared as quickly as it appeared. He spent a long minute silently gazing at the immaculate building of the central building, and his desire to protect consolidated even further.

    "Would life truly be worth it if I knew that it could have served for a better purpose?"

    "Would the so-called adventure be pleasurable if I knew that everything here would disappear?"

    The answer appeared in his heart, as clear the soft light coming from the moon, and it was a determinate and unquestionable no. He would stay here and do his utmost in defending those walls.

    Another silent vow branded itself on his soul. One that wouldn''t be easily swayed by his dreams in life and that would stay true till his last breath.

    "I guess that''s what being a man is¡­", he thought before finally noticing the silent officer.

    A self-deprecating flashed on his lips, and he took a steady step back from the border of the wall.

    "Hello, sorry for making you wait.". He said with a slight bow from his head.

    The officer in front of him stood silently for a few seconds. He came back to his senses, and his body briskly moved as if hit by an electric shock. His hand snapped at his forehead, and his cloth produced an overpowering noise from his movement. Jamie executed a military salute before stepping forward.

    "The name is Jamie, and I''ve been ordered to help sir in his duty here.", heavy determination was marked in his words. His thought were still in shamble, but he managed to recollect himself and expressed himself succinctly.

    "Looks like my own thoughts and delusion can affect others¡­", he thought while looking at the officer in front of him. "He might have calmed down, but I can feel the distress his mind is going through."

    A smile reappeared on Fell''s face, and this time it was a warm one that expressed his gratitude. "Then, I''ll have to thank you for your future services, Jamie."

    The officer couldn''t help but become absent-minded for a second when looking at Fell''s face. The friendliness showed in Fell''s smile wasn''t one he was used when serving higher-ups.

 Chapter 219 - Dawn Approaches Part One

    Jamie showed Fell the way around, and after not even ten minutes, they finished touring the totality of the area they were supposed to defend. "And that''s it, in this area the defenses from the West and North team will gather. The same is also true for the area between Northern and Eastern wall."

    "Oh.", mumbled Fell. Turning the circular walls surrounding the city into four different outposts couldn''t be a bad idea, especially if their defenses would cohabit in each section.

    "Well, the area isn''t very vast. And I''m guessing that the majority of the people here will use a ranged weapon."

    Surprise flashed on Jamie''s face, and he couldn''t help but nod before explaining. "That''s not really surprising; the problem with our defense is that the majority of our MechSuit pilots aren''t well trained to attack the wave in close combat."

    "To those people, close quarter combat is equal to dying at the first mistake. Although I''m sure that they won''t hesitate to charge if it''s needed.", he noticed Fell''s gaze and couldn''t help but add. "As for me, I''ll be following sir whenever he decides to go. If you feel like charging forward inside of the mob, I''ll follow your back and support you with my meager skills.", he finished his sentence while bumping his fist on his torso.

    A deep thud resounded from his hit, and Fell could see the man''s determination in his face. "No need to carry the same risks as I will do.", Fell responded with a smile before looking around.

    "Where are the others?", asked Fell with puzzlement on his face. "Isn''t the attack supposed to happen in less than a few hours?"

    Jamie couldn''t help but smirk at the question, and his finger moved to point towards the ground under their legs. "You see, this wall isn''t really a wall and inside of it are large facilities. Do not worry; in two hours at most, this place will be filled to the brim with MechSuits and canons."

    "The same will, of course, be true for the other defensive outpost as well.", he finished explaining before shutting his lips. He stood near Fell in silence and waited for the youth''s next question.

    "Jamie. Are you afraid?"

    The question surprised the officer. A dumbfounded expression appeared on his face for a few seconds before turning into laughter. After the long burst of laughter, Jamie wiped the tear in the corner of his eyes before answering.

    "Aren''t we all, sir?", he responded with a smile on his lips before continuing. "I mean, fear is a normal response for the human brain. Without fear, we would all rush to the beast wave that is coming. And the result won''t end in our favor."

    "Aren''t we still going to do that, Jamie?", Said Fell while looking at the soldier in the eye.

    "Well, the actions may be the same. But with fear, we have managed to acquire humanities strongest weapon. Courage, with emboldening us and helping us advance forward.", he paused for a second feeling the blood running through his veins. "With it, we might find the little path that will lead us to our survival. I have an unwavering trust in humanity''s capacity when it comes to survival."

    Fell nodded and stood silently while looking at the distance. The night was advancing at a fast pace. In a faraway distance, a soft light could be spotted. "The sun won''t take long before it rises.", he mumbled before Jamie exclaimed.

    "The sunrise from here is quite the view. I''d say that its one of the best perks of working high up those walls.", a smile hung on his lips, and he breathed deeply before continuing. "What a blessing to be able to see it one last time."

    Surprise flashed on Fell''s lips. He approached the border of the wall and sat on it with his leg dangling in the air. His head turned toward Jamie, and he exclaimed in a matter of fact tone.

    "I''m not moving from here. You should go take care of your own preparation.", he said with a wave of his hand. An odd expression appeared on the face of Jamie, and he felt as if he was being shooed away.

    "Don''t you need a MechSuit?", asked Jamie in a hurry. "We have the latest models down ther-"

    "Don''t need it; I''m already fully ready for the battle.", interrupted Fell without turning around. His vision was marked on the distance, and he couldn''t help but cherish this silent and calm moment. Even in the middle of the night, he could see with crystal clarity as if it was the middle of the day, and his precision was still top notch even in those circumstances.

    "Judging from terrain in front of here, most of the beast wave will move from those spots."

    He began making a mental note, and studied the battleground where the battle would happen tomorrow. "Depending on the beast''s size, that patch of forest can be used as a place where I can retreat."

    He spent the next twenty minutes filling his brain with hundreds of potential usage of the terrain in front of him. "Climbing this wall might be difficult; thus, I''ll need to keep the retreat towards the wall as a last resort.", he thought before looking near his leg.

    Hundreds of meters separated the top of the wall and its base, a jump of this height was sadly still something Fell wasn''t capable of doing. Plus, due to the steepness of the wall, it couldn''t be climbed on unless he created dents in its surface. If he made those dents, he would leave out ways for the most intelligent and agile beast to climb behind his tracks. And that wasn''t something he wanted.

    "As I thought, I''ll leave it as a last option.", he confirmed the thought in his mind. "I''m not sure there would be beasts that could cause me a problem, but I should still raise my guard. Just in case¡­"

 Chapter 220 - Dawn Approaches Part Two

    Fell spent the rest of his time in the same place. His brain concocted many plans that used the terrain in front of his eyes. Before long, individuals began appearing around him.

    But he didn''t move from his place and continued gazing at the distance. The numerous sounds of elevators popping in his surroundings were picked up by his ears but didn''t break through his tangible focus.

    He didn''t only work on many plans but also sharpened his battle intent through his long session of sitting. A nearly visible aura had condensed around his body. His breathing had slowed down to a point where he looked like a statue to the people around him.

    A few tried to interact with him, but they were all ignored, and they went back to their own preparations. After an hour passed, his intent had nearly materialized and could be sensed by everyone that was on the wall. Their shocked eyes would dart from time to time toward the silent youth, but none of them attempted to interact with him anymore.

    "Is he snobbing us or something?", asked one of the MechSuit pilots to his friend with an unsightly expression on his face. He was one of the many individuals that tried talking to Fell but were faced with a wall of silence that forced them to back away.

    "I don''t think so. I''ve heard a word about him, and he isn''t that type of person. I''m pretty sure he is as stressed as the rest of us, and that is his way of coping with it.", responded the blond-haired MechSuit pilot to his left, who''s eyesight didn''t quit Fell''s figure during his speech.

    "He is preparing himself, mentally and physically. There are a few cultivators among us, but none of them have advanced to a step similar to that youth."

    Comments like these resounded all over the wall. They all quickly came to disappear as everyone was facing the rising pressure and stress from the incoming battle. In the last thirty minutes of wait, nobody spoke a single word up in the walls ¡ª complete silence, where even the heart beats of the people present could be heard with crystal clarity.

    Fell had since long closed his eyes, and his senses at the same time. But that didn''t mean that he wasn''t aware of the movement around him; he knew about their preparation and had felt the blood essence of the individual around him.

    "Less than ten percent of them are cultivators¡­", he couldn''t help but think with a minute movement of his head. "Too low¡­", he mumbled in his mind. Although technically, pilots weren''t obliged to cultivate; the ones that did always ended up having better control of their MechSuit and sharper battle senses.

    Seeing that less than ten percent of the hundreds of individuals around him were cultivators made the number big enough. But Fell couldn''t help but remind himself of the numerous dangers that would be present in the incoming beast wave. That being said, he didn''t bother his mind with those thoughts and continued preparing his battle intent.

    He needed to be at his best state if he wanted the city to survive, or even himself to survive through what was making their ways toward them. A series of mechanical beeps resounded in his head, and Fell opened his eyes while ordering the AI to shut down the alarm he had prepared beforehand.

    "Guess it wasn''t that useful¡­", he thought about the useless precaution he had prepared. His neck moved, and he looked behind him for the first time since he had sat in that place.

    One line after another of MechSuits were standing behind him. Each MechSuit had a pilot standing next to it, and between every dozens of MechSuit stood a gigantic cannon the size of a van. The numerous colors of the MechSuit that entered his eyes caused Fell''s heart to skip a beat in his chest.

    "No wonder the higher ups agreed to the defense of their cities. In the end, if it wasn''t for the potential bombing, they are quite confident in dealing with the beast wave on their own¡­", seeing the resource put in place to defend the city ¡ª the potential outcome of what was going to happen changed in Fell''s thoughts.

    His hand put some strength on the ground under him, and he rose to a standing form with a slight push on the ground. His joints creaked and produced noisy pops that gathered the eyes of the individuals near him. Fell moved his limbs for a few seconds before turning toward the line of soldiers behind him.

    He gazed at them for a few seconds before he executed a military salute in a snapping movement. His cloth whipped with the air, and his leg nearly left a dent on the ground from the strength of his action. The eyes of the many MechSuit Pilots in front of him opened up widely, and numerous glints appeared in them.

    They moved in a synchronized manner. Numerous figures mimicked Fell while returning the salute. They similarly stomped on the ground, and their feet created a deep sound that reverberated through the wall. This action might seem useless, but later in the battle, those soldiers that had shared this politeness with Fell would happen to produce exceptional results.

    The strange action garnered the attention of many individuals, and with a domino effect syndrome, the military salute was produced by each soldier. Every one of them felt emboldened by it, and strangely couldn''t help but produce it while exuding a sharp breath through their lips.

    "No wonder Sir is said to be an incredible figure¡­", footsteps approached Fell''s figure. Fell turned toward the familiar voice and saw Jamie dressed in a tight protective suit approach his position.

    "No need to be that polite, Jamie. No more Sir, calling me Fell will do the job.", he responded with a smile that wasn''t one. The action didn''t only affect the soldier but had also nourished Fell''s battle intent.

 Chapter 221 - Dawn Approaches Part Three

    The minute passed in silence; the soldiers'' eyes were rived on the far distance. Fogs were released near them, as their breath condensed due to the coldness and altitude where they stood.

    An oppressing and dense atmosphere surrounded them. One that continued growing with the passage of time. Their bodies might be stationary, but their mind was restless ¡ª a complete contrast from the image they portrayed.

    Of course, a few of them were strangely calm. Their eyes glanced at the distance without betraying any internal thought, and those people had since long come to face and accept the fact that they might die.

    Through this acceptance, those individual''s mind yearned for time to pass faster.

    Before long, dawn made its way in the far distance. A soft, warm orange light broke through the veil of darkness, and from the altitude, it gave the impression that it was chasing away the obscurity in front of them.

    Jamie stood silently next to Fell. His gaze didn''t leave the rising sun in the distance for a single second, and he couldn''t help but feel his spirit bask in the strange yet unusual ambient mood.

    Fell smiled, a broad and pure smile. "It truly is as beautiful as you said.", he mumbled in a calm tone that couldn''t contain his wonder. "Just like you said, this view is truly one to yearn for.", he exclaimed one last time before falling back to silence. Jamie nodded, and after a few minutes of standing behind Fell, he took a step back with a stern expression on his face.

    "They are here¡­", muttered Fell in a low tone. Due to the complete silence, his word dropped like a bomb, and a different expression flashed on the faces of the soldiers in the wall. A wide range of emotions traversed the heart of the defenders- from fear to anger - with the might of a sporadic infection, it was passed from one individual to another.

    In the distance, a dark mass could be seen accompanying the rising sun. They were spotted by everyone high in the wall due to the clouds of dust they rose during their advance. After a few minutes, an alarm reverberated in the city, and the soldier moved in sync.

    The standing MechSuit, who had been akin to sculptures, came to life with flashes of colorful lights. Their engines roared, and they moved forward at the same time, causing a wave of tremors to travel under their legs. Mechanical sounds of steel plates grating one another reverberated, and weapons of all kind appeared in the hands of the MechSuit.

    Guns, rifles, and cannons made up the majority of the weapon used by the defense corp. Yet Fell noticed a few MechSuit with swords, spears, and halberd that glinted under the soft light coming from the sun.

    When the rays of light from the rising sun basked the smooth surface of the wall surrounding New Casablanca. The sea of black in front of them had turned from an indistinct mass to discernible shapes.

    Fell''s face had since long turned serious. With knitted eyebrows and dark expression, he roared through his gritted teeth.

    "Advance!", the short order entered through the ears of the many soldiers present. MechSuits stepped forward at the same time. Their engages roared and produce beastly war cries.

    Fell took a steady and confident step forward. With the void under his feet, his figure disappeared from the wall, and he began a speedy descent toward the ground. The soft windy breeze that had been calmly brushing his skin turned into a vigorous gale from the speed of fall. The air turned into sharp knives that poked at his face; the cold feeling awakened Fell''s mind, and he gathered his arms at his sides to accelerate his descend.

    Behind him, dozens of MechSuits armed with their weapons were following his descent. From the distances, their figures resembled a rain of arrows that were advancing toward the beast wave.

    As Fell was the first to leave the wall, his body was also the first to touch the ground. A deep hole appeared in the place where he landed, and a cloud of dust rose once again as he darted forward.

    Dozens of thuds rhythmically resounded from the dozens of landing MechSuits. Engines roared once again, and beams of light escaped from their backs as they followed Fell''s back.

    The image of a sole back darting toward a sea of vicious beast left a deep impression in the mind of the soldiers present. The youth''s broad back turned taller as he approached the sea of beasts in front.

    In one of the MechSuit behind Fell was a yellow colored one. Jamie was inside of the armored steel, and couldn''t help but flash a smile on his lips. "He truly is reliable.", he though right before Fell disappeared in the mass of morphing black.

    Soldier''s Fortune appeared in Fell''s grasp. With one final stomp on the ground, he disappeared from the ground and reappeared over the advancing sea of vicious beast. His eyes darted left and right, and his senses swiftly detected the strongest beasts. Thankfully, he only needed to search for the strongest blood essence.

    In a second, before his body even had time to began descending, he finished choosing his prey. A slippery figure, hidden among the vicious beasts, slithered on the ground at a fast speed. It''s gigantic body didn''t seem to hinder the small behemoth.

    Fell''s figure began descending, and with a strange push on the air his figure disappeared yet again. His figure appeared among the sea of beasts, a few dozens of meters away from the titanic snake. The limb that grasped Soldier''s Fortune turned into a windmill, and many semi-circular strokes were unleashed in a single beat.

    Tens of vicious beast exploded, buckets of blood and innards scattered on the ground, and on the many beasts near them. A dense metallic smell arose around Fell, and the blood coming from the corpses dispersed in the air.

 Chapter 222 - Dawn Approaches Part Four

    After a few sniffs, dozens of reddened eyes glared at the black clothed figure. The black haired man couldn''t help but snort and began walking toward the titanic sized snake in front of him.

    A few beasts roared and jumped towards him. But their efforts were in vain, and their bodies turned into fertilizer for the soil under their feet. Obviously, that would have been the case for the corpses if it wasn''t for the many vicious beasts who ignored Fell and jumped on the deceased body of their peers.

    "I guess they weren''t called vicious for nothing.", thought Fell before focusing on the task at hand. If he wanted the operation to be successful, he needed to search and execute the strongest beasts. Beasts of the level of the titanic snake could gobble a MechSuit fighter in one bite.

    He feared the potential outburst those beasts could cause inside of the city and had thus chosen them as his targets among the beast waves. Of course, if any beast dared attack him during that, he wouldn''t forget to take down out in his road.

    A pair of wolves with a height of two meters appeared in front of him. They barked and howled at his figure while flashing their sharp canines in front of the youth''s face. A nauseous odor escaped from their mouth and assaulted Fell''s nostrils with their deadly breath.

    An annoyed light glared in Fell''s eyes, and his hand moved while his body dashed through the pair of fierce wolves. "Stinking fuckers.", he mumbled with two head falling on the ground.

    After taking care of dozens of other beasts, the other animals from the mob turned wary and began avoiding the black haired figure. Although he had only taken care of fewer than forty beasts in the short amount of time, he had invaded the sea of monsters. The effect it had was astounding, and only the most stupid animals kept trying to attack him.

    The other, more intelligent, began avoiding his road. Fell wouldn''t have asked for a better option as it eased his work, and he swiftly crossed the distance that existed between him and the titanic snake. On the short trip, he happened to meet an intelligent monkey-like beast that had tried to avoid him.

    Fell sensed the monkey''s blood essence and took a small detour to take down its head before arriving in front of the gigantic snake.

    "I hope Little Gold doesn''t turn into an ugly beast such as you¡­", he commented before darting forward.

    He took two steps in a single row, before being forced to evade a tail swipe with a jump. The enormous size of the creature made its tail the size of a vehicle. Thankfully its speed wasn''t anything that Fell couldn''t take care of. Nonetheless, it still wasn''t something he wanted to confront head-on.

    The snake seemed to see through Fell''s move, and a gigantic tail made its way toward the trajectory of Fell''s jump. A shock wave appeared the glossy tail as it broke through the speed of sound, and swiftly connected with Fell''s figure. It sent the youth''s figure tumbling away, with the might of a rocket straight into a group of bear-shaped creatures.

    Fell''s back connected with one of them. The momentum and energy contained in his high-speed moving body turned the creature into a mass of mashed meat and broken bones. Clouds of dust appeared, and the ground was leveled from the shock.

    Hiss! The titanic serpent couldn''t help but let a satisfied hiss escape from its tongue. It guessed that the monkey-like creature that had tried attacking it was dead from its attack; rare were the creatures in nature that had managed to survive after a blow from him.

    Bestial roars and savage howls resounded near the place where Fell''s body landed. A sharp glint appeared in the middle of the clouds of dust, and four bear-like creatures were cut into small pieces. "Sadly, I''ve got no time for you.", said Fell without taking another look at the creatures he had just killed.

    His sight focused on the snake in the distance. A vicious grin drew itself on Fell''s face, veins popped on the surface of his skin, and his muscles bulged before he dashed forward. The ground under his leg turned into fine particles of dust that hovered in the air, and he swiftly reappeared in front of the titanic snake.

    "Greeting me once, and ignoring me as soon as you think I''m dead.", he mumbled through his gritted teeth. "I''ll show you what an annoying fuck I can become!", he took a few steps forward in a rhythmical and strange pattern.

    Activating ''Ghostly Stutter'', he evaded the titanic snakes'' senses and managed to make its way toward its tail. He glanced at the glossy surface of its skin, and with one look, managed to find an irregular spot between the colorful scales. "Payback time.", he mumbled before hacking forward.

    Soldier''s Fortune rose high, before falling down in one swift electric motion. A sharp screech escaped from the throat of the gigantic snake, and its muscles began bulging as it rolled everywhere. The pain coming from having its tail cut made it roll around in a maddened manner.

    It convulsed and killed dozens of beasts around it during its maddened agitation. "Guess you didn''t enjoy the surprise.", commented Fell with a vicious smile from a safe distance. He had guessed that if he executed a lethal blow on the vicious serpent, the outbreak of its pain fueled rage would turn its surrounding into a hell.

    He waited for a few seconds, and before long, the serpent calmed down and began looking around with glaring red eyes. Anyone could sense the blood lust released from its, and every creature and monster around it escaped from its surroundings.

    Fell stood in place, his sword instinctively moved and cut every creature that passed close to him while gazing at the serpent with a murderous glare.

 Chapter 223 - Dawn Approaches Part Five

    The colossal beast looked everywhere around it, but due to the escaping creatures and the numerous corpses, it had turned into squashed innards. It had quite a serious difficulty in noticing the standing still Fell, and it was only when it sensed a dangerously sharp blood-lust that its splintered pupils turned toward the black-haired figure.

    "Finally", thought Fell as he felt the chilling glare on his head. "You''re quite the dumb one, aren''t you?", he exclaimed loudly with a mocking grin on his face.

    The titanic snake was quite the intelligent beast, and although it didn''t understand the word spoken from the hairless monkey in front of her. It fully understood its intention and knew that it was making fun of it.

    How dared he! Nobody had ever dared to treat him like this.

    It thought while releasing a sharp hiss, that broke the eardrums of many animals near them. This feeling of being looked down wasn''t something the gigantic snake was used it, as it was usually him who would look at preys like that.

    A long and thin sword-like tongue snapped a few times out of its mouth. Numerous information was gathered during the few flicks of its tongue, and it began coiling around itself. The titanic snakes coiled around a few times, and its lower part formed a spring that began whenever it contracted its muscles.

    "Oh, you want more?", asked Fell in a soft mumble. In the middle of the noisy beast, his voice didn''t go far before being washed out by the numerous howl and roars. By now, the MechSuit''s charge had made contact with the beast wave and was making their utmost effort in stopping it.

    One corpse after another fell on the ground. But the intensity and number of the beast forced the numerous MechSuit to step back, and before long, they were engulfed by the mass of bestial attacks. Thankfully, few were the numbers of casualties from the human side, as the defenses offered by the armored MechSuit couldn''t easily be pierced by the sharp claws and deaths from the beasts.

    Except for a few cases where the MechSuits were engulfed under the weight of hundreds of animals, and their pilots were disappearing after their deadly passages. Thankfully, most of the MechSuit was equipped with an engine powerful enough to take flight, and that special perk made it easier for the human side to kite the beast wave.

    The Titanic snake coiled on itself and began strangely contracting its lower part in a rhythmic pattern. The short distance of a few dozens of meters meant nothing for it, and for Fell too, who could easily cross that distance in two steps.

    Their gaze locked on each other. And before long, the snake lost patience, and the ground it broke down and became fine particles. The huge slippery figure turned into an arrow that pierced the air. A tremendous shock wave appeared around its body as it broke through the speed of sound.

    But even at this speed, Fell could see its movement with ease. His right leg drew a semi-circular circle in front of him and traveled backward before taking a solid footing on the ground. His lung expanded as his lips turned into a vacuum that inhaled every speck of air around him.

    A grim expression replaced the vicious smile he had. The arm grasping Soldier''s Fortune rose to the height of his shoulder and was placed in a horizontal manner. As soon as he finished taking his posture, the beast entered his range of attack. Its oversized jaw snapped open, and rows of sharp teeth appeared in front of Fell.

    "I''ve already cut you once. Begone!", he mumbled as he moved in an explosive fashion. Soldier''s Fortune disappeared, Fell''s figure disappeared. The Titanic Serpent''s jaw snapped again, and close as it continued traveling through the air. After flying for another twenty meters, it hit the ground, and its fine line appeared in the middle of its body. The next moment, its body was turned into two similar pieces before it died. A large puddle of blood soon left from its dissected body and turned the brown soil into a vivid red color.

    Fell had reappeared a few distances away, his body was still in the same posture, and a deep line had been traced on the ground behind him, leading toward the place where he had been standing.

    Soldier''s Fortune black blade was filled with the Titanic Serpent''s blood, his hand moved, and his forearm snapped at his side. A long line of red appeared on the soil, and Fell disappeared toward another powerful blood essence he had detected.

    His figure dashed among the many vicious beasts. Whenever he passed, the numerous beast would stop in their track, and turn into motionless statues before falling on the ground in many pieces.

    "I guess our defenses are holding quite well.". He exclaimed between two speedy steps, with eyes darting everywhere. He swiftly managed to gather information about the state of the battle.

    Due to the fact that MechSuit gave humanity better defenses and weapons. Even with a far smaller number, the human managed to hold their ground in front of the plentiful vicious monsters. The casualty from both sides couldn''t be compared as every seconds; dozens of monsters would be taken down just from Fell. The MechSuit''s didn''t disappoint Fell as he saw their heroic charge take down hundreds of beast in one fell swoop.

    "If we hold like this¡­", he mumbled before stopping in track and turning around. Horror flashed on his face, and he couldn''t help but slightly tremble before raising his head. There in the sky, he looked at the origin of the filthy blood essence he had sensed earlier.

    Shaped with the same musculature as a three-meter high gorilla, and donned with a pair of black wings that seemed to contain the obscurity of the night. In its hand was a crunched and bloodied helmet of a MechSuit.

 Chapter 224 - Nascent Grudes Part One

    Fell breathed sharply as he glanced at the dark figure in the sky. His mind reeled as his senses picked on the horrifying blood essence from the ghastly figure, and he nearly threw up from the amount of negative energy that resided in the gorilla''s body.

    Compared to it, the titanic serpent''s energy wasn''t as malevolent and even seemed pure when putting next to the dark and filthy power of the flying monster.

    Malevolence and destruction were part of the blood essence of the creature, far viler than Gold''s mixed blood essence.

    It hovered quietly in the air. The grim expression on its face showed Fell that the creature had a decent amount of intelligence.

    Suddenly its red gaze passed next to Fell before stopping onto his figure. Fell deciphered the expression on his face and nearly flipped out when he recognizes that it was taunting him. Their sight crossed, and Fell noticed the humanoid figure flash a vicious grin before darting in the distance.

    "What the hell?", he nearly roared before stepping forward in the direction where the creature flew. He felt that the creature''s action was the contrary of his own, evading the strongest opponent while taking down the weaker MechSuit''s pilot.

    Fell used his utmost speed in following the creature, but due to it being capable of flight. Fell sadly fell short behind it when it came to speed, and as he was making his way toward it. He felt a cold sensation in the back of his neck, and his senses picked up the disappearance of blood essence.

    That blood essence was clearly human and had disappeared like a blinking star in the sky. Rage flashed in Fell''s thought, and he activated ''Solary Dive'' to accelerate the pursuit. Veins popped in his face, and the youth turned into a piercing sword that forced a path through the beast wave.

    Any fleshly being that came too close to him during his passage was transformed to small bits; fueled by his rage, this execution of ''Solary Dive'' was the sharpest he had ever executed. His speed broke through his utmost record, and for the first time, Fell managed to brush off the friction from the air.

    "Bastard!", he howled before appearing in the spot where the stationary humanoid figure was. It''s furry arm was plunged deep in the chest of a silver-colored MechSuit, blood flowed through the hole in the steel by gallons. The expression on the gorilla''s face caused Fell''s heart to skip a beat.

    The soil under his leg exploded as Fell''s body disappeared from the ground. He reappeared in the air, a few meters away from the humanoid monster, his sword flashed with a ghastly light that seemed to contain power from the underworld.

    The attack happened in the blink of an eye. Soldier''s Fortune stroked many semi-circular paths through the air, and a chrysanthemum flower bloomed in the middle of the battlefield.

    The gorilla didn''t expect an attack of this caliber, and he took a step back with a pained expression on his face. A lengthy grunt escape from its throat, he groaned in pain while holding his right arm. A clean-cut could be seen in the place where its elbow was with the rest of its arm having been cleanly dissected.

    After reducing its pain with powerful bestial screams that sent chill down Fell''s spine. The young cultivator gazed at the creature with a somber gaze that showed he wouldn''t be stopping with just one arm down.

    "Scream as much as you want. You will pay the rest of your debt with your head!", a vicious bark flew out of Fell''s lips, and he put strength on his leg. The soil under his feet exploded everywhere, and his figure darted yet again toward the winged gorilla.

    Fear mixed with grudged appeared on the beast''s face, and he was forced to retreat back. Unfortunately for Fell, the gorilla was donned with strong wings that gave him the advantage of mobility. In the air, unless the gorilla made a mistake again, he wouldn''t easily enter his range.

    Fell landed on the ground, his sight marked on the fleeting dark figure in the distance. A grim and dark expression had taken hold on his youthful face, he didn''t stop in his track for more than a second before resuming his pursuit.

    On his road, his hand would move is a fluid manner. Executing dozens of sword strikes in one execution-taking down dozens of enemies in his path without any difficulty-Fell boiled from the inside and savagery had appeared in the essence of his sword style.

    His movements were direct and didn''t hold any choreographic value, going straight for the kill without any useless movement. An efficiency to kill that was perfected during the trial by fire in Battle League, and that was being perfected even more on this battlefield.

    With every move of his own, dozens of beasts would stop in their track and fall on the ground before splattering into many pieces. With every beast he would take down during his pursuit, his killing intent would rise, and his speed would augment even more. Before long, the figure of the humanoid monkey appeared in the distance; during his escape, he had stopped and attacked a MechSuit pilot.

    Fell saw the scene in the distance, and before he even had the time to alert the man. The gorilla''s sole arm turned into a spear that went through the armored figure with ease. Fell sensed the horror in the pilot''s mind, and with his blood perception could see the life flow out of the human fighter.

    The gorilla''s arm turned into a sponge that absorbed every speck of life that existed inside the armor. It then threw the rest of its meal without care, as if it were dirty rags, the armored MechSuit fell down with a thud on the soil. Veins popped on the black fur of the winged humanoid figure, and Fell could sense that Its strength had recovered to some extent.

 Chapter 225 - Nascent Grudges Part Two

    "Crap, it can heal itself by absorbing blood!", he quickly assessed before darting forward. But the winged gorilla only flew back, easily evading Fell''s attack before disappearing in the distance.

    Fell''s nerves were tingling, and his anger spiked once more. He was sure about it; he would stop at nothing to take down the vicious gorilla. "The bastard always flees whenever I approach him. I don''t think I''ll manage to evade his senses¡­ How can I take him down?!", he exclaimed while taking down his anger on a few cannon fodders from the beast wave.

    But it didn''t do as he expected; it was even the contrary. Killing other beasts only made his anger grow, and the image of the daunting smile from the winged gorilla flashed in his mind. In front of an opponent that could fly, he could sadly only swallow the bitter pill and accept the truth.

    "How the hell am I going to stop his rampage?!", he thought with an unsightly expression on his face.

    He then spent the next ten minutes following the winged gorilla everywhere on the battlefield. The screams from the dying MechSuit pilots turned into ghostly wails that began haunting Fell''s mind. Fell found himself incapable of defeating him and could only advise the MechSuit pilot he met on his pursuit to be wary of the winged gorilla.

    His determination was washed out slowly with each minute that was drawn by the winged gorilla. One head after another began pilling up, and the gorilla''s kill count soon exceeded the two digits. A feeling of being incapable of stopping him arose in Fell''s heart, and if it wasn''t for his burning rage that was making him follow the beast in a relentless manner. He would have abandoned long ago.

    "This time, I''ll get you. I definitely won''t fail to take you down.", he screamed in his thoughts before seeing another MechSuit fall on the soil. A desperate groan escaped from the black-haired youth''s throat, but he could only swallow his bitterness while gazing at the fleeing gorilla.

    Sounds of laughter resounded in the sky, horrifying laughter that wasn''t anything a human throat could release. With every failed attempt, the gorilla turned more and more brazen. Before fleeing away from Fell, he would flash a taunting smile while sucking the blood out of his victims.

    Thankfully, the pilots died inside of their MechSuits. If it hadn''t been the case, the state of their corpses would have left a deep image in the young cultivator''s memory. With each death, he resented himself and his own uselessness at being capable of stopping the creature. With each death, he would also go on rampage and murder hundreds of fierce beasts.

    He had since long stopped counting the number of dying MechSuit pilots. His face, although grim, had turned emotionless with the many tentative. Only his eyes, and sword, were expressing the state of his heart through his lightning-fast killing sprees.

    Then, at a moment where both of them didn''t expect it. One of the MechSuit pilots executed an action that the gorilla hadn''t expected. While nourishing itself on the living corpse, the brave man didn''t hesitate and executed an action that created an opening for the young cultivator.

    The MechSuit''s armor turned red, and the temperature surrounding it rose in the blink of an eye. The engine roared, screamed one last time before a gargantuan explosion appeared in the sky. The shockwave reverberated, turning Fell''s vision and hearing useless. His sight blanked, and his heart wept the death of yet another of his allies. But he couldn''t afford to waste this opportunity, with eyes blinded by the sudden flash of light, he executed ''Solary Dive'' and darted forward in an explosive spring.

    His blood perception served as his senses, and the large dot representing the gorilla''s blood essence turned bigger in his vision. The momentum of his body was translated to his sword in one swift motion, and with an abrupt rotation, he delivered an exceptionally swift hack.

    A blood-curling scream reverberated in the battlefield. A black, night-like wing fell on the ground with a thud, and a minute sigh escaped from Fell''s lips before he sharply inhaled. He didn''t leave a single second open for the winged gorilla, and as the animal was groaning and screaming in pain, Fell reappeared in front of him, and a sharp flower bloomed on the torso of the beast.

    Soldier''s Fortune pierced through the fur and flesh of the animal with ease, and a free and unfettered sensation washed Fell during the killing blow. All of the rage and killing intent that accumulated during the pursuit was released, turning into a driving force that turned Soldier''s Fortune into the deadliest of blades.

    "Die!Die!Die!Die", groaned Fell after executing one last blow. Aimed at the neck of the beast, his blade cut through the flesh with ease as though it was a steaming hot knife on butter.

    The lightning fast series of sword attacks, a mixture of beauty and savagery, turned the beast''s body into a tattered string of flesh. The head of the gorilla still showed a fresh expression. His daunting vicious smile had disappeared, overtaken by his last thoughts, fear, and pain.

    A lengthy arrow of air escaped through Fell''s lips. His thought cleared, and the dark negative thoughts that had welled deep in his mind were expelled with the sigh. Killing the winged gorilla had left him a deep, lasting refreshing feeling, and seeing the expression on the dead beast left him a sense of morbid pleasure.

    "The loss far out weight the gain achieved by killing him.", he thought while thinking about the many human life the gorilla had taken in the short minutes. He felt wasted and tired from the relentless pursuit, but he couldn''t stop as the battle was still ongoing everywhere around him.

    "I''ll just need to kill them by hundreds to make their death''s worth it.", as soon as he took the decision, he dashed toward a group of monsters.

 Chapter 226 - Nascent Grudges Part Three

    Thirty-minute later. Fell stood in the middle of the battlefield, mountains of corpses laid on top of each other under his feet. His breathing haggard, and his face slightly pale from his overexertion. He couldn''t help but look around him with a tired yet satisfied glance on the pile of corpses at his feet.

    His black cloth had turned into dirty crimson rags with the many liters of blood that had spilled on him. Numerous apparent injuries could be seen on his back; notably, a deep laceration could be seen on his forearm. Deep to the point where the white of his bone could be seen.

    His throat was sore from all the roars he had unleashed. As for his mind, although it couldn''t be said that he was tired, fatigue was still slowly creeping around the corner. If he kept fighting at the same intensity, he would soon arrive at a point where he would be wasted.

    Thankfully, he didn''t need to burn his stamina more than he did. His effort had paid off, and if there weren''t any more trouble like the titanic snake or the winged gorilla, then the defense of the west wall would surely be successful.

    He glanced around himself and noticed that the beasts were annoying approaching his position at all. He sat down on a black bear that was still intact, except for his missing limbs, and enjoyed a few minutes of rest while looking at the battlefield.

    He couldn''t help but praise the bravery of the man that fought at his sides, although far lower in number. Their strategic might overpower the rampant vicious beast wave and managed to block them from advancing constantly. Corpse piled up over and over a dozen of meters close to the wall, and although the line of MechSuit line were forced to retreat a few times.

    They''ve always managed to shove the beast wave back with enough strength to secure the defense of the wall. Even if it wasn''t necessary to do so as the beasts couldn''t really ascend the steep and smooth wall, strategically, the move still had tremendous value.

    Keeping the beasts in the same position and using the piles of corpses as small walls of defenses served as a means to stop their advance. And using it to maintain a higher ground served to assert the MechSuit army dominance over the beast wave.

    Endless sounds of rifle shots rhythmed the howling war cries from the beasts. Grenades were used one after another, and the MechSuit equipped with melee weapons rushed in a group attack every few seconds. With their combined attack of constant ranged firepower, and bursts of close quarter assault helped them in managing to hold their positions with a solid grasp.

    "Keep them at bay!?", a muffled order escaped from the helmet of one of the ranged armored figures ¡ª his rifle aimed at a group of fierce wolves and shot a spring of explosive bullets toward them. The high end armament turned the group of four legged bests into an indistinguishable mess of broken bones, mashed fleshly innards, and splattered grey matter that stank from a fair distance.

    The whole battlefield had transformed into a nauseous hell, where the corpses of the beasts and the few fallen MechSuit had already started rotting. The highly infectious fierce beast didn''t take long to rot; their bacterias and microorganisms caused the battlefield to turn into a sea of festering swarms.

    "How''s our ammunition?"

    "Nearly finished!"

    An operation was swiftly launched. Part of the line of MechSuit defender flew toward the wall, while the rest stood along the line of corpses and continued blocking the advance of the beast wave.

    Fell watched the scene from afar, and his figure turned into a ghost that he traversed the corpse riddled battlefield. As he arrived from the back of the beast wave, he didn''t have any difficulty in creating a straight path among the advancing mass of vicious creatures. With his sword opening a passage, he quickly arrived next to the line of armored solider and stood among them.

    "Advance!", a roar boomed out of the young cultivator''s throat. His killing intent, and battle intent condensed with the shock wave that washed the beast wave in front of him. Fear induced wailing escaped through the throat of the many trembling creatures.

    "Kill! Kill! Kill!", three words left Fell''s lips, and he rushed forward. Behind him, dozens of MechSuits glided armed with a melee weapon that rose streams of soil along their paths.

    "Kill for your brothers! Kill for your city!"

    "Kill them all!?", roared Fell on top of his lung. His string of words managed to empower the soldier behind him, who had seen him take down hundreds of beasts on his own. He had to lead them through the first assault, had taken down the most dangerous beasts, and was now once again leading them in an unstoppable charge.

    His back turned broader and encompassed everything in their visions. With adrenaline coursing through their veins, they turned their engine to their utmost limits and gave their all in the attack.

    Fell was the first to reenter through the fray. He hacked left and right and created a deep hole in the mass of fierce beasts. That hole was then enlarged even more when the MechSuit attacked behind him.

    Among the beast waves, hundreds of lives perished in a single second, and that number was rising with the ticking clock of time. Savage frenzy overtook the being of the pilots in their MechSuit; they hacked, chopped, and cut to their heart''s content.

    When the group of flying MechSuits came back with charge ammunition, they found an even bigger mountain of corpses lay on a crimson red soil in front of them. Fell''s entire figure was soaked, and his black hair had been tinged with a very apparent red hue. The steel armored MechSuits that accompanied his assault weren''t any better and had also turned into red tainted figures that sent stank of the metallic blood from the fierce beasts.

 Chapter 227 - Nascent Grudges Part Four

    Due to their collective effort, they managed to achieve success in defense of the west wall. Due to the constant barrage of ranged attack from the lines upon lines of flying MechSuit, helped with waves of charges from the one with the melee weapon.

    A strange balance was born from the special circumstance in the battlefield, one where the fierce monsters never stood a single step behind the MechSuit line. The steep wall in front of them stood less than a hundred meters away from them, and the distance seemed ridiculous to the beast wave that had crossed miles and miles to attack New Casablanca.

    But that short distance turned into an uncrossable path. With the constant effort from the earthling side, that zone turned an impossible place to cross for the beast wave. Going as far as to stay that it had turned into a dead zone in the psyche of the intelligent beast.

    Sadly for the intelligent one that tried to cross from another place. They would be swiftly taken care of by Fell, their encounter with the young cultivator turned out to be worst than the defense from the army of MechSuits. Ever since his fight with the winged gorilla, he began spending extra attention on any monster with any sign of peculiarity in their blood essence.

    Due to those circumstances, it could be said that the defense of the west wall was currently a success. And with the strange balance that had taken place in the reddened soil, it was only a matter of number. If they kept the waves upon waves of creatureS at bays, before long, their number would keep reducing until they were all destroyed.

    Unfortunately, the case wasn''t that easy and at the three-hour mark. The mental endurance of a few MechSuit pilots began dwindling down, and their accuracy and reaction time began falling apart. With fatigue taking place on the earthling side, it was also only a question of time for a major mistake to happen.

    A simple breach in their tight defense could force the army of MechSuit to retreat in the walls. Or even worse, in the case where they wouldn''t have the time to retreat, being trampled alive by the tons of weight from the beast wave was an even worse scenario.

    Fell glanced at the army of MechSuit, and his fear couldn''t help but consolidate with every minute passing. And before long, what he has been afraid of happened in front of his eyes. One of the MechSuit pilots missed one of his shots, and that sadly coincided with the fact that he had to reload his ammunition.

    Fell sensed panic through the man''s fluctuation in blood essence. His movement was uncoordinated, and he dropped the rectangular plate of ammo on the ground. He quickly dropped down on the ground, tried to grab the ammo he had dropped, but it was already too late. A two-meter tall wolf shaped creature pounced on him, his widely opened jaw shut down in an instant on the metallic helmet.

    Fell tried to intervene, but he was half a beat too late, and the head of the pilot was swiftly bitten off its place by the giant fierce wolf. "Crap.", cursed Fell while dashing from one three to another. He had just taken care of a slightly stronger monster who was avoiding the army of MechSuit and had been making his way back to the main line of defense.

    He arrived and took down the fierce wolf in one swift hack to the neck. Fell attack was slightly lacking in strength, and with the fierce wolf''s thick neck muscles and strong fur, he didn''t decapitate the beast but had still dealt high enough damage to incapacitate it.

    The beast dropped on the ground with a thud, and a deadly groan escaped from its bloodied maw. It trembled and spasmed for a few seconds, before exhaling one last breath, it died with buckets of blood pouring out of the deep neck injury it had.

    Although he avenged the MechSuit pilot, the consequence of what had just happened couldn''t be dealt with just with the death of the fierce wolf. What he had feared happened, and the line of defenses had been breached.

    The hundreds of MechSuit pilots were overrun in a split second and soon found themselves engulfed inside of a sea of vicious creatures and fierce beasts. Panic took over the mind of many pilots, and they tried their utmost in resisting the assault that was coming from every side.

    "Retreat!", howled Fell with a strong voice. He mixed part of his will and energy in the order and managed to make it loud enough to overpower the sound of the battlefield during a small moment. But that was enough, as his voice was heard by every human soldier.

    Engines roared, and one MechSuit after another took off in the air and began retreating toward a safe distance.

    "Recreate a line!?", another order escaped the lips of the young cultivator. He didn''t immediately retreat and began helping the soldier escape the deadly grasp of the fierce beast.

    In the dangerous moment where the lives of the western army could disappear in a minute, he stood as the last line of defense and used his own body to secure the retreat of the many MechSuit pilots. Strangely, he didn''t know why, but in the middle of the battlefield, his senses turned sharper and sharper. Going to the point where he could feel the fear and despair of his ally with crystal clarity.

    Thankfully, his body was far stronger than the many beasts around him. And a habit of fighting inside of a grand battlefield was already deeply ingrained in his body. The sharp fangs and canines from the beasts could cut through his skin but weren''t strong enough to deal consequent damage to his flesh and bone.

    Even with that case, his body soon turned into a bloodied mess, with blood from his own veins.

 Chapter 228 - Nascent Grudges Part Five

    Losses were happening all over the places, but thanks to Fell and the army of MechSuit that managed to gather in the air. They helped the soldiers that were in a bad situation and managed to save a nonnegligible amount of life.

    "Retreat and reload the ammunition of your weapons!", Fell roared toward the sky. Unsightly expression appeared on the faces of the soldiers from New Casablanca.

    They had seen his strength through the past hour, but couldn''t help but doubt their ears when he told them that he was going to stale the entire beast wave by himself.

    Jamie flew forward inside of his MechSuit, a spear was grasped by his steel enforced gauntlet, and he soon arrived next to Fell.

    "I will assist you, Fell!", he exclaimed in a loud voice. Behind him were a few other MechSuit that used melee one, who had also decided to assist Fell in his effort of buying enough time for the rest of the army. They were aware that the young cultivator was overexerting himself, and didn''t find the strength to leave him to do the job alone.

    In the end, they only worried about the internal batteries of there armored suits, as they used mainly fought with melee weapons. Among them, stood a familiar golden armored MechSuit that had a pair of unusual thick gauntlets; a MechSuit designed to battle in a barehanded style.

    Fell recognized the person inside, and couldn''t help to be presently surprised to notice that it was Johnny from the police assault team. "A pleasure to see that you''re alive!", exclaimed Fell with a smile that shouldn''t have appeared on a battlefield. He then turned around and left them with a final notice. "Don''t die on me¡­"

    A fierce expression flashed on Fell''s face, and he delved yet again inside of the beast wave. His body, riddled with injuries, but still animated with undying battle intent.

    Every step he would take was followed by a fierce and deadly attack from his sword. A lone flower bloomed in the battlefield at his every step, its soft yet powerful light could be seen from a long-range and branded itself in the memory of the soldier who saw him in action. A strange mixture of loneliness and beauty followed the swordsman.

    Muffled battle cries rang from under the MechSuit''s helmets, and the dozens of melee fighters that stood with Fell turned into bullets that pierced behind Fell''s path.

    Fell couldn''t help but remember those brave heroes that followed him in his advance toward a potential death. Their heroic actions were done to secure the success of defending the west wall.

    After plunging his sword deep in the heart of a crimson-colored bear, Fell breathed sharply and couldn''t help but think. "I hope the other walls are doing better than us¡­".

    High on the wall, a few men couldn''t help but gaze at the figures that were still inside the beast wave. From a distance, their figures were swiftly engulfed by the gigantic dark mass that made up the beast wave. Their heart couldn''t help but feel a certain type of bitterness, one of only being capable of watching the fight happen in front of them, without being capable of accelerating the process of recharging their MechSuits.

    "If only we were cultivators¡­", muttered one of the soldiers up in the wall with a bitter sigh that sounded as though it was a weep.

    His thought arose due to the fact that cultivators had better control of the energy of a MechSuit, and were thus practically far better MechSuit pilots. A strange type of remorse arose in their hearts, an aftertaste that firmly took hold in their mouths. One that couldn''t be washed away for the moment.

    The sound of the beam cannons close to them rhythmed their thoughts with regular, clock-like thicks, that was akin to an hourglass in their minds.

    "Faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster.", they silently prayed.

    Nothing else could be done as even the cannon were part of an automated system that didn''t need to be controlled. The only action they could do was pray, pray for their MechSuit charge up faster so they could rush to the battlefield to assist their brothers.

    Fell sensed the emotion from a distance, and couldn''t help but strangely feel in a peculiar trance. Memories from the soldiers next to him flooded his thoughts; inside of the battlefield, his acute senses kindled his soul and made him sensitive to many things he couldn''t pick up before.

    "A cultivator is also capable of such strange power¡­", mumbled Fell while slaying one creature after another. The voices from the other soldier constantly rung in his head.

    "We must assist him to the best of our capacities!", Jamie''s voice rang in Fell''s mind. His determined tone was accompanied by a weird flow of thought that contained the intent of Jamie''s soul. That energy kindled Fell''s battle intent, and without any effort from his own, his sword intent turned sharper in an instant.

    "Brother Fell is such an amazing figure. Who would have guessed than two people from the Core would turn into defenders of the central district¡­".

    "Life is quite the irony.", a flow of energy was yet again noticed by Fell as he absorbed it. It was Johny''s voice accompanied by a powerful yet complex intent that once again turned kindled and emboldened Fell''s sword intent.

    "My Soul!", Exclaimed Fell in his thought.

    A strange pop began resounding in his head-Fell couldn''t help but find it similar to the sound that occurred when his dantian was opened- and he felt his senses get absorbed inside of a white-colored "hole" containing multicolor veins.

    And as his body was executing the sword arts that were ingrained in his particle and atom that made up his being, his soul materialized in a vast void.

    "Where Am I?", he asked with puzzlement apparent on his face. One that was different, yet very similar to the face of his physical body. In fact, there were only a few details that were different from this body. An Ego Body, his true persona.

 Chapter 229 - Shining Persona Part One

    His voice emanated from the entirety of the place where his Ego Body stood. It was as if this was the place where his thought had always originated from; as if this was where his soul had always been.

    A flood of information surfaced in his head, with those pieces of information being about the white-colored holes that had just opened up in his body. Due to the nearly innate information he had gathered, he knew that the place was similar to his dantian and was the place where his will power resided.

    He sensed the strange wisp of energy he had gotten from Jamie and Johnny''s intent float randomly in the large white spaces.

    "A soul palace¡­", his voice spread from everywhere in a vague mumble. Then, as he stood in the middle of the large place filled with his soul cultivation energy, he felt the inverse of the suction that had occurred when he was sucked inside of the white hole.

    His body was still mechanically slaying one beast after another, and the next moment his body quivered minutely, and he regained the full control of his body. He glanced at his arm, he saw and sensed the power that emanated from his sword intent.

    He focused on the feeling that originated from his sword intent and unleashed one of the sword techniques from his foundational Massin Sword Art. His blade glinted from an abrupt moment and broke through the void before cutting through the chest-dissecting the heart in the trajectory- of a crimson-colored bear that stood nearby.

    But that wasn''t all, Fell''s sharp intent didn''t dissipate but attached itself onto a condensed wind blade that materialized even further. The sharp air current turned into a visible, glinting white, semi-circular moon that continued forward in a straight path. It met a few beasts related to a monkey species that had mutated into, bulkier, frenzy creatures.

    A clean cut appeared in their stomaches before they froze in mid-movement and turned into solid figures. Their body opened in half with their stinking innards spilling on the red viscous soil.

    Surprise appeared on the face of the young cultivator, and he couldn''t help himself but try and reenact what had happened. He was pleasantly surprised to notice that he had no difficulty reproducing the strange sword technique.

    "Seems like a change happened to my soul, a very beneficial change at that". He mumbled loudly, before darting forward in a straight path. The MechSuit fighter followed his steps, but was shocked when they noticed that with Fell around them, they weren''t needed to act at all.

    Ironically, and thankfully in a strange sense, the number of creatures was big enough that even with Fell that was decimating dozens of them in one blow. The assistance of the MechSuit user soon came to be needed by the young cultivator.

    With his recent breakthrough, and the upgrade that happened to his sword intent. He found himself delving deeper and deeper in the black mass that was the beast wave, and his figure was soon lost in its central region. Jamie, Johnny, and the rest of the melee MechSuit users were forced to retreat in their steps.

    If they followed, they will be in a situation where the defenses of the wall would be opened. The number of the beast was such that if left uncontrolled, they would easily arrive at the walls. A situation that none of the fighters hoped to see as they saw the strength and peculiarity of the beasts in front of them.

    It wouldn''t surprise them that some of them were to climb the smooth wall easily.

    "We can''t follow him!", snorted one of them.

    "He will soon attract their attention.", spoke Johnny with certitude.

    "We can only put our trust in him. The same way he did with us!", exclaimed Jamie with a succinct tone while backing away. His spear spin and turn into a speedy windmill, and in an abrupt manner, changed his blow into a piercing thrust that didn''t miss the head of a creature in his path.

    The tens of MechSuit fighter retreated to the wall while bathing the steel of their armors with buckets of blood from the different creatures of the beast wave. A tremendous amount of ominous energy emanated from their battle armors, and the blood lust from the entire battlefield seemed to interlink around their own killing intent mystically.

    In the distance, Fell disappeared with his figure plunging deep in the sea of fierce creatures. His figure was akin to a water drop falling in the dept of the ocean.

    The heroic tens didn''t fall short behind Fell and entered a frenzied battle state where they began taking down one beast after another. Johnny''s fists turned many brains into mush, and he showed his experience in battle through his many techniques.

    The police officer opened the dance, and the others followed shortly behind him with their weapons in hand. Among them were a pair that used swords, sharp weapon akin to a long dagger, and the most surprising was a shield that could be mistaken as a door.

    They spent a minute in a blind disposition, where they were separated by a small distance and where everyone fought in an unorganized manner. Assisted with the blood boiling in their veins, and emboldened by the fierce determination that had taken hold in their mind. They fought left and right in a hazardous way.

    But due to the high number of creatures surrounding them, they were forced into a formation where each of them was assisting the other. Their efficiency of killing fell sharply, but their defense rose, and they soon held a solid footing in the middle of the vast number of creatures.

    "We need to believe in Fell, we will successfully defend the wall behind us, and more than everything, we will keep our lives while doing so!"

    Those were the thoughts that delved in the hearts of the fighter from the New Casablanca.

    £¬

 Chapter 230 - Shining Persona Part Two

    Minutes passed, and the MechSuit up in the wall were all done charging. Due to the efforts of the melee fighters, the wall stood tall in complete safety without a single scratch.

    Bathing in a sea of beasts that reeked of death, the fighters faced tremendous pressure and nearly died a few times. But in the difficult condition, their efficiency when working together rose and they shone with a bright light in the middle of the gloomy battlefield.

    Thankfully, there were no other cases similar to the winged gorilla and titanic serpent. But a beast, with a slightly weaker blood essence, had appeared in front of them. Thankfully, with their cumulative effort, they took down the devil spawn in the blink of an eye. Before it even had the time to execute any attack.

    They had seen the might those creatures were capable of, and upon seeing the ravage done by the winged gorilla. The team had been fearing the appearance of another deadly monster. Thankfully, the creature they had fought seemed intelligent but wasn''t capable of strong battle strength.

    The creature''s small corpse laid on the ground, with its white fur tainted and dirtied by the red soil under it. Its face, horrifying for anyone to see, as a recognizable expression laid on it. True fear and horror that could be empathized by anyone.

    Thankfully, the dozens fighter didn''t pay much attention to the creature after killing it, or they simply didn''t have the time to.

    Soon, the sky was lighted with many bright dots. A small army of a hundred MechSuit fighter came to assist the melee armored soldier that had been holding the defenses alone. Assisted with their ranged weapon, they managed to regain the footing they had earlier, and with the melee users working in a tight formation, the battle completely tilted to the human side.

    Deep in the heart of the beast wave, Fell fought right and left while hunting the fierce monsters that had a strong blood essence signal. He met strange creatures he never thought existed, and couldn''t help but feel a twisted sense of wonder whenever he slaughtered them.

    Morbid thought filled his mind. But the space that had just opened in his body cleansed his thought and gathered them in his sword. His sword intent turned sharper with his developing killing intent. And before long, Fell noticed that a strange veil followed his steps.

    "I reek.", snorted the youth with a twitching nose. He took away his sword from the heart of lizard shaped animal with grey scales, and a face that resembled a skink.

    He continued swimming among the dangerous beast, and before long had slaughtered a ridiculous amount of beast, a number so high that he had stopped counting them.

    At some point, he noticed that the number of creatures surrounding him had fallen drastically. And whenever he moved, he sensed the blood energy escape from his position; he executed ''Ghostly Stutter,'' but it didn''t change anything as whenever he moved, the fierce beasts would avoid him.

    "Fuck¡­ hunting in those conditions isn''t worth the effort¡­", he thought before retracing his steps toward the west wall of the city. Thankfully, he had spent the night looking at the landmass surrounding the city and had no difficulty in finding his way back.

    He traversed a dense forest with tall yet thin trees that had a height of twenty meters for the shortest, and with a few trees that grew to ridiculous heights. His steps resounded in the silent forest, and even the corpses that laid everywhere were left untouched.

    He began running, and before long, a heap of creatures appeared in the distance. As soon as he approached, a path opened in front of him, and the beasts began escaping while releasing numerous sounds and reactions that portrayed their fears.

    "What the fuck¡­", mumbled Fell with a dumbfounded expression. His presence was felt by all in on the battlefield, and Fell easily made his way through the mass of fleeting vicious creatures. Before long, he made his way back to the small army of MechSuit, who noticed the miraculous event.

    Under their metallic helmet, their expression varied from incomprehension to cheer fanaticism.

    "Fell sure is amazing. How the hell did he pop out from the Core?!", thought Johnny with a wry expression on his face. He doubted that the youth in front of him wasn''t a beast in human skin. Even he could feel the ridiculous amount of ominous energy that followed the young cultivator''s step.

    Behind him, a gloomy veil contained the soul of the lives he had taken today. The most sensitive individuals could see the ominous and gloomy veil. But in the eyes of the one who didn''t notice the peculiarity, they only saw Fell walk as the beasts parted from his way ¡ª turning into a true deity in their fanatic gazes.

    Fell sensed the piercing gazed that marked his body, he noticed their emotions with crystal clarity but wasn''t bothered by them. For a kid from the Core that had been ignored his whole life, this experience of being the center of attention was strangely pleasurable.

    He accelerated his steps and soon arrived toward the position of MechSuit army. Behind him, the beasts didn''t dare to take a single step forward and only gazed at the city while releasing a few growls.

    The veil containing the multitude of beast soul, and the odor of blood emanating from Fell served as a powerful deterring force that blocked the fierce beasts.

    "Looks like you guys survived.", exclaimed Fell with a smile. He then turned around the beast wave, and a cold and gloomy expression flashed on his face.

    The army of fierce animals turned into ice stones that constantly shivered. The temperature surrounding Fell sharply dropped down. His lips opened, and he drew a long breath before uttering a tremendous roar.

    A shockwave spread from Fell. Mixed in, it was part of the energy and bloodlust he had gathered during his fight.

    "Scram!"

 Chapter 231 - Shining Persona Part Three

    His intent spread through the entire battlefield of the west wall. Panic and fear stroke the heart of the beasts, and it didn''t take more than a second for them to begin escaping.

    Clouds of dust rose due to their speeds, and the ground trembled due to their enormous size. The incredible scene encouraged the heart of the soldier; their hand raised toward the sky, and muffled roars escaped from under their helmets.

    The dull roar rhythmed with the incessant trembling under their legs held for a duration of a few seconds. And as the beast escaped further from their positions, the constant shaking gradually came to a stop.

    "Crap!", cursed Fell before chasing the beast wave. In the distance, he noticed that the part of the beast wave that had attacked the west wall didn''t leave the city''s surroundings.

    He left the small army of MechSuit with one last consign before disappearing in the distance. "Gather the troupes and go help in defense of the other walls!"

    His figure pierced through space as he chased the beast wave. The soldier stood in place for a moment, looking at his figure flash in the distance, before they darted away.

    Fell noticed the beast wave divide itself in two, one coursed toward the left while the other went in the opposite direction.

    "Fuck, where should I go?", he thought with hesitation flashing in his amber-colored eyes. "What the hell should I do?!"

    "Fuck it, I''ll start with the North!", he decided in a split second before turning to the right. As the beast wave was making its way toward the north wall from the west, and as the wall of the city was circular, it was forced to take a small detour due to Fell that was in their pursuit.

    His presence could be sensed by any beast from a mile away. In their twitching nose, his odor couldn''t be any more nauseous due to the many types of blood that had mixed on his cloth ¡ª not even talking about the more evolved beasts that could sense the cloud of scattered souls that followed his every step.

    Due to him being closer to the wall, he arrived first to the North defenses and was surprised by the horrific scene that appeared in his eyes.

    The defenses from the human side were still standing solid, but many marks had appeared on the steep surface of the North wall. A sign that the securities had nearly been breached open a few times.

    Thankfully, a quick scan from with his blood perception notified him that no beast had managed to climb it.

    Horror flashed on Fell''s face, and he noticed a giant figure standing among the beast wave. A corrupt and depraved blood essence could be clearly seen with his blood perception. Its decadent characteristic was accompanied by a pure sense of strength that pulsed though a burning sun.

    "What the hell is that creature?", his vision followed his senses, and the monstrosity appeared in front of his sight: long thin legs, the size of a gigantic black pillar. Dozens of purple-colored tentacles, attached near the creature''s mouth, dangled and moved in a creepy manner.

    Fell gazed at the spider-shaped creature and couldn''t help but tremble. He had a feeling that if he hadn''t broken through in his soul cultivation, trouble would have arisen if he had faced this creature.

    "What a powerful beast¡­", he assessed before making his way toward the group of MechSuit fighters who were near the walls.

    As he approached the battlefield from a deserted area. He felt a cold sensation appear in the back of his neck, and his movement nearly froze for a split second. "It sensed me from this far!", he thought before rationalizing.

    "Not surprising with how much I stank.", he joked before accelerating his speed even more. A wry and self-deprecating smile hangs on his dirty face, and he could be seen bitterly moving his head in a dramatic fashion.

    "I feel even dirtier than when I was living in the baby cemetery¡­", he said with a twitching nose. He had never been the time of an individual to be bothered by dirt or filth, but now he couldn''t start dreaming about taking a shower. But he knew that those were just reverie, and he came back to his senses when looking at the mass of numerous monstrosity that creped in the distance.

    The MechSuit army fought with their utmost power to try and reduce the number of the beast wave. But they found out that their effort was akin to throwing buckets of water on sand. It didn''t take long for results to show, and with every beast, they took down, they could only bitterly swallow the loss of resource lost.

    "Reload!"

    "Keep them at bay!"

    "Next charge in Three-Two-One!", engines roared, and dozens of black colored MechSuit rushed forward.

    A yellow colored insignia was marked on the right part of their torso, and it was clear that they were part of the same group or organization. A mechanical screech echoed from their backs, and sharp wings glinted during their flights.

    Just as they were going to make contact with the group of beast, they were supposed to stop; their arm moved in a fluid motion, grasped the sharp wings from the handle, and drew the strangely shaped blade.

    The group of beasts in front of them roared before they pounced with claws and canine aimed toward the weak spot of the MechSuit''s. The wing-shaped blade passed through the flesh of the beast with ease, and the charge successfully ended with a semi-circular aerial maneuver that redirected the flight of the MechSuits.

    "Back to the standpoint!", a muffled order escaped from the helmet of one of the black colored MechSuit.

    One of them was glancing left and right during the road back and noticed a figure approaching in the distance. It was Fell, who was clad in what was left of his black martial attire. Clothes that had since long turned into dirty crimson rags.

 Chapter 232 - Shining Persona Part Four

    "Who the hell is that guy?", mumbled the chief of the MechSuit corps. "What is he doing here?"

    The line of black MechSuit continued down their track and regained the rank of the army. Their importance in the current battle was, as such, that they couldn''t leave the main line of defense for more than dozens of seconds.

    Although the other MechSuits were donned with melee weapons. The proficiency of the pilot was too low as the number of soldiers had to be raised at the last minute. Using rifles or other long-distance guns was safer for them, and mistakes wouldn''t be as punished.

    Fell judged the scene from afar and couldn''t help but thank god that he noticed the beasts running toward the north. Although the north wall seems to be holding quite well, it was obvious that they were tired, and more pressure would have broken their composure with ease.

    Fell followed the group of ten flying MechSuit toward the main line of defense. He slaughtered a few beast low-level beast that dared to stop him, but as soon as the other creature noticed his presence, a straight path opened up, and the low-level creature began moving away from him.

    "What the hell is happening there?"

    "Are they leaving?"

    A few comments escaped from the lips of a few surprised soldiers. They couldn''t help but mutter their hope loudly, but soon enough, they notice the frail black figure in the distance as Fell had fought with all of his might and was wearing ragged cloth covered with blood. With his bloodied and dirtied face, he wasn''t recognized by the small army.

    As his body approached the main line of defense, the effect he had on the creature turned even more apparent- a few even darted away in a speedy escape- and was fully noticed by the small army.

    "How is he doing that?", said one of the soldiers.

    "I recognize him!?", jumped one of the lower-ranked soldier. It was one of the men who worked in the police department and who had seen Fell there a few times.

    "It''s that young cultivator who was aware of the beast attack!", he added with a shrill tone that turned acute at the end.

    "Why is he here?", said one of the higher up there with a pale face. "Did the west wall fall?", he added with an unsightly expression. His voice was loud enough for Fell to pick up, and as he was close to their position, he answered in a loud voice that spread through the battlefield.

    "No! The west wall is still doing well.", his figure turned into a blur, and he appeared only a few steps away from the small army. "I have come to assist you."

    He then turned around, pointed at the distance toward the strange humongous spider in the distance, and added with a serious tone.

    "I''ll take care of that."

    "Continue keeping this line standing."

    His words were short, and he instantly disappeared back inside of the beast wave. His speed broke through the limit, and he didn''t leave the time for the creatures to get away and confronted them head-on. His explosive dash turned dozens of creatures into a fleshly mess of blood and innards.

    The army of MechSuit didn''t react for a few second, their thoughts were filled with the deep lasting image left by the young cultivator. They couldn''t help but wonder for a moment if the youth was truly human, and if he shouldn''t be in the opposite side.

    The few sensitive cultivator among the small army of MechSuit were the most shocked as they could sense the numerous energy that followed Fell. His body, soul, and heaven and earth energy weren''t contained and could be sensed.

    What troubled them the most was the large ghastly veil of scattered souls that followed his every step; those sensitive individuals couldn''t even breathe when standing next to the youth, and there was when no intent was coming from Fell. They didn''t dare but imagine how it would feel like to be hunted by that man

    "Everyone, Focus!", an order left the mouth of a higher-up that had taken the role of being a general in the north wall. His order boomed through the silent battlefield, and rain of bullet and explosives were once again thrown toward the beast wave.

    Due to the appearance of Fell, the beat wave in front of them had lost part of their earlier frenzied madness and were much more muddled. Their sluggish attack was easily dealt with by the army of MechSuit that used the opportunity to advance the line of defense further forward.

    "Tighten the lines, keep those fuckers away!"

    "This is a godsend opportunity. Slaughter them all!"

    "Kill! Kill! Kill!", those word rung in the heart of the soldier. And turned into a dogma that emboldened the heart of the many warriors.

    The experimented and battle heartened warrior smelled the turn of the tide and pressed their peer to push forward with even more strength.

    They were aware of what the presence of the youth meant in the hazardous battlefield and took advantage of that to consolidate their strength even more.

    Fell was making his way through the sea of monsters and fierce beast. Every slightly evolved creature felt his presence, and they began making their utmost in avoiding him. Sadly for them, as they were packed tight as a wave, they couldn''t run away easily from the black-clothed swordsman.

    With every attack unleashed from his sword, flowery rays of light would bloom in the sea of misshapen figures. And with his attack extending into crescent moons that dealt ravaging blows to the rank of beasts, it didn''t take long for his surroundings to drastically thin down.

    He slays left and right while making his way toward the long-legged spider creature. His sight didn''t leave the monstrosity for even a split second, and he stepped in a strange rhythm akin to a mysterious battle dance through the wave of fierce animals.

 Chapter 233 - Shining Persona Part Five

    ''Ghostly Stutter'' was used to the highest efficiency he could achieve. He avoided using ''Solary Dive'' as the movement was too linear and didn''t have many uses in a messy battlefield.

    Before long, he entered the dept of the beast wave, and the long-legged spider had turned into a towering figure in his sight.

    Fell swallowed his saliva, and he couldn''t help but think out loud. "How the hell am I supposed to kill something this huge?", he licked his dry lips and continued forward.

    As he slaughtered one creature after another in his advance, he saw a scene that made every hair on his body to raise up, and a cold shiver traversed his body.

    He saw the humongous spider-shaped creature move; to be more exact, what moved were the purple tendrils that were near its chelicerae. Goosebumps filled every surface of his skin when he saw what followed. Among the sea of creature that was attacking the city, the spider was gobbling a few beasts next to it.

    "Cannibalism?", he thought before adding. "That can''t really be considered as cannibalism as they''re not really from the same species¡­ But still, why the hell aren''t they avoiding her?"

    His mind reeled from panic as he had come to understand that even the less intelligent creature could recognize the fierce spider as a danger, especially when it wasn''t hiding its feasting from the other.

    "It''s¡­ as if they aren''t even noticing its actions!", he screamed in his thought while glancing at the numerous beast that stood next to the long black pillar-like legs.

    He swiped his surroundings with his senses and noticed that the spider''s blood essence was growing with every creature it gobbled. "It''s using this opportunity as a free meal¡­"

    "Does it mean that whatever is controlling those beasts isn''t affecting the spider!", he assessed in a split second. He figured that his thought was rational enough for them to be close to the truth, a horrific and ghastly truth.

    "Now that I think about it, although the other strong beast didn''t act differently from the rest. They seemed to be animated with their own thoughts."

    The winged monkey had been focused on hunting the weaker MechSuit and had flashed odd human expression when consuming their blood. The titanic snake wasn''t left any time to act on its own, but the resentment it had shown felt from it clearly showed it was intelligent.

    When those thoughts were linked together, the possibility of the spider being highly intelligent was highly probable.

    He continued pushing forward in a relentless manner and, at some point, was less than a hundred meters away from the giant spidery creature. As soon as he entered that perimeter, he felt as if he had plunged inside of a pool. Invisible webs crisscrossed through the entire zone around the gigantic creature.

    "I might have underestimated it¡­", he thought with a bitter smile on his lips. "But I still gave my word, and I''m not leaving without taking you down.", he stepped forward with determination weighing his walk.

    He focused his senses around him and noticed that the invisible wave was made with a power similar to the one of soul cultivator. He gazed at them for a long moment with puzzlement flashing in his eyes, his hand approached one of the nets, and he hesitated for a moment before clenching his fist around it.

    His figure shivered for a moment. Then, his eyes lost his focus in a moment, and his amber-colored eyes turned cloudy. He appeared in his soul palace and noticed that long thread of purple color had appeared there. He felt an ominous yet bewitching aura suffuse from those thick twitching threads.

    An odd expression flashed on his ego body, and it could be seen that he was facing difficulty facing a strange power. He opened his lips with difficulty, and from every single inch and parcel of his spirit appeared his voice.

    A strong determination could be sensed in his tone. "Begone!", trembling resounded from everywhere in his spirit palace, and the expression flashing on his ego body changed. From being lost, with apparent incomprehension, pure frenzy savagery appeared on the face of his ego body.

    The white permeating every inch of his soul palace, flashed for a moment. Then, as if a river of blood was being poured inside of it, it changed to vivid crimson, red, color.

    The cloudiness in his eyes disappeared, and a clear as day killing intent burst away from him in an explosive shockwave.

    "I see¡­ Contrary to your huge size, you''re actually quite the underhanded creature.". With every word that left his lips, his breath condensed in front of him due to his blood boiling in his veins. "I despise shits like you!", he briskly said through his gritted teeth.

    Growls resounded from everywhere around him. Numerous red eyes were locked on his figure, and he couldn''t help but break his sight from the humongous creature and focused his senses around him.

    Strangely, the beast wave was once again showing signs of hostility toward him. The apparent fear that existed in them had disappeared, and he was back to the point where every creature was trying to get him.

    "Oh, now even you guys forgot about me?", he mumbled while pondering on the strange event. He thought deeply with a serious expression for a few seconds before raising his shoulder in defeat.

    "Not too bad for it to be like this.", Fell said with a vicious smile flashing on his lips. "I guess I won''t have to run behind you bunch of spineless beasts.", he said before dashing forward.

    His body turned into a whirlwind, sharp and speedy, and he disappeared under the attack of the numerous beasts. Inside of his body, in his soul palace that had now turned a vivid red, a ghastly veil was hanging in a part of it. Shrieks, squeals, and screech escaped from the scattered souls that constituted the surreal tissue.

    £¬

 Chapter 234 - Ominous Charms Part One

    He broke through the small group of fierce beast assaulting. He stepped twice in a single beat and executed a swift pirouette with his sword following his move. Blood splashed everywhere around him, with dozens of creatures split open without any difficulty.

    Fell''s nose twitched a few times, and he couldn''t help but feel that his odor had changed.

    "What the hell happened to my body?", he thought while sniffing at himself a few times. But, the fierce monsters around him didn''t leave him any free time and jumped at him with claws aimed at his neck and head.

    He swatted them with ease, not even using the edge of his sword. But as soon as he took one out, another creature would take place in its stead; Leaving the young cultivator no time to advance.

    "Crap!", he cursed as he felt a sharp claw graze his back. Thankfully, his muscles were strong enough and managed to repel the sharp extremity of the beast''s paw.

    He turned around and hacked twice in a single beat, turning the beast into a mess of mushed flesh and broken bones. He puffed a few times, and for the first time on the battlefield, he felt himself get overrun by the hundreds of monsters surrounding him.

    "I can''t die in this place.", he thought while feeling the mass of numerous beast constrict around his thin figure. A sensation, akin to claustrophobia, took over his mind, and he couldn''t help but feel the need to take a breath. Sadly, in the middle of the ball of beasts that had overrun his figure, his diaphragm and throat didn''t seem to be capable of doing their work.

    Groans of pain and discomfort were the only thing that escaped his lips. "Crap-crap-crap-crap- This is dangerous¡­", His mind constantly rung with an alarm that the current situation was getting out of his control.

    His bones creaked and produced numerous pop that was akin to his own body screaming in pain. He felt as if the pressure that surrounded his body would soon raise to a point where he would turn flat.

    "Little Gold. Send me everything.", he ordered in panic. His hair spiked, and golden colored veins popped under his skin; the temperature surrounding his body rose in the blink of an eye, turning the creatures in contact with him into charcoal.

    He felt their blood essence extinguish, but that didn''t help his situation as he was still constricted by their enormous weight. Thankfully, as a cultivator, his body continued tremendous resources to maintain itself alive. But in the dangerous battlefield, a situation like these was vowed to turn worse with time.

    Lightning didn''t aid him, and the situation turned even more urgent. He swiftly ordered Little Gold to stop and began thinking in a speedy manner. Hundreds of plans arose in his mind, and he entered a hyper-focused state in a split second.

    Due to the urgency of the situation, he didn''t find it difficult to enter the mystical, physical state where his brain overclocked itself. A fresh sensation arose in his thought, followed a clarity and fluidity in his train of thought that he had rarely attained.

    But following those signs of amelioration in his mind. A grating and burning sensation arose in his body, and before long, he began hearing strange pops. As if his own neuron were being fried by the overuse of his brain.

    "The short sword!", he thought in a split second before gazing at his dantian. "I''ve got nothing to lose if I try it!", he assessed in a split second before making contact with the artifact that he had been refining in his energy nucleus.

    The small, yet sharp artifact that was hovering quietly in his dantian flashed with luminous light. As if sensing the urgency in its master''s order, it turned into a wisp of light that coursed through his meridian. It flew inside of his energy pathway at an incredible speed and was moving in the direction of a few pathways that led to the young cultivator''s head.

    In the center of the mass of dark creatures, Fell opened his mouth with difficulty, and a ray of sharp light flew out of it. In a split second, the sharp tiny sword pierced through the mass of bodies and escaped from their grasp.

    As soon as it flew out. The sun''s soft light shone on its surface, and its sharp edges reflected the light from the burning astral star. "Turn everything into bits!", a strange misshapen roar escaped from Fell''s lips. His eyes had since long turned red, and his bulging veins akin to worms had appeared on the surface of his body.

    As soon as the order was ushered. The little sword turned, once again, into a sharp ray of light, it swiftly attained a speed faster than when it escaped from the mass of the hundreds of creature''s bodies. It made contact with the outer layer of the body in an instant, and once again delved deep in the mass of flesh and bone.

    Howls and roars of the dying creature were muffled due to the lack of space inside of the ball of corpses. Fell sensed the artifact pierce through dozens of corpse in a split second, and with each second passing, dozens of blood essence would extinguish.

    "Faster! Faster! Faster! Faster!", he ordered. He was feeling that his body wouldn''t hold another minute under the enormous weight that was holding him back. His intent seemed to attain the tiny artifact, and sharp and deadly intent flashed around the sword. Aided with his own developed sword intent, the tiny sword turned into a blinding ray of light.

    Every time the sword would make contact with a beast''s body. The creature would shiver for a second, before exploding into a mess of blood and innards. A minute passed, then it was two, and just as Fell felt his mind go blank, a piercing ray of light appeared in his sight. And the light from the firmament shined on his dirtied face.

 Chapter 235 - Ominous Charms Part Two

    "Crap, that was close¡­", he said with a long sigh. His hand moved, and he managed to extirpate his body from the mass of the dead creature. When he finally crawled from under the mountain of creatures, a gasp escaped from his lips, and he couldn''t help but be smitten by the artifact''s work.

    "You''re quite strong, aren''t you?", he exclaimed with a smile while gazing at the tiny sword. It quietly hovered in the air and seemed to have lost its early frenzy. "Get back home.", he succinctly ordered, and the sword turned into a ray of light that flew inside of his mouth.

    He couldn''t help but let a satisfied sigh escaped from his lips. His vision then focused on the mass of mangled and dilapidated corpse that laid under him. "What a mess¡­", he thought before looking left and right.

    He noticed that the number of beasts in the zone of the spider had drastically reduced. And apart from a few twenty creatures that stood nearby the gigantic spider, the rest had all rushed to his position and had tried to kill him by turning him flat.

    "I guess they are a few bright side to what happened¡­". he said with a self-deprecating smile before jumping away from the mountain of crushed corpses. The beasts had piled into a ridiculous small mountain of dozens of meters of height.

    When he landed on the fresh mud, he couldn''t help but turn around and whistle in morbid admiration.

    "No wonder I felt like I was going to exhale my last breath.", he exclaimed while moving his head left and right in a surreal manner. "Thankfully, Little One had been there. Or else, It would have been my death place.", he said before kicking the corpse of a beast that was in front of him.

    Little One was the name he had given to the small artifact. One due to the object being Fell''s first magical artifact, and was another show of Fell''s bad naming senses.

    "Time to take care of the crux of the problem.", he said while massaging his stiff shoulders. He began approaching the gargantuan spider while circling around its position. He tried avoiding the numerous invisible thread in his passage but had been obliged to cut a few that couldn''t be evaded.

    As soon as his blade cut the thick ephemeral cable, he felt another cold sensation calmly brush the back of his neck. "Fuck it. As if I care if it knows where I am.", he said before stopping his current plan of attacking the spider with a surprise attack.

    The body of the creature turned imposing the further Fell approached it. When he entered a range of thirty meters, the fierce spider had turned into a towering construct where he couldn''t even see the top part. He swallowed his saliva with difficulty and ignored the palpitation in his heart before stepping forward.

    His heart filled with apprehension toward the dangerous creature still didn''t force him to turn back. The more he basked in fear; the more courage was birthed in his heart. A strange paradox that forced him to step forward once again with determination.

    Then, as his body was close to the other beast near the deadly spider, he was noticed, and they darted toward him in a maddened rush.

    Soldier''s Fortune glinted under the warm light from the sun, and he stood his ground while waiting for their approach. His heart beat in a maddened pace, but he regulated his thought with a few breaths. Then as he was ready to cut the first beast that approached him, he saw something that made his heart constrict, and his face turned a pale white.

    "What the fuck?", he nearly screamed loudly while taking down the beast in front of him at the same time. He moved his hand instinctively to slay another creature, but his blade only slashed through the air and didn''t make contact with any flesh. His shock didn''t come from that, but from what had appeared in his vision.

    In front of his surprised eyes, there were no longer any beasts around the humongous spider. He took a few steps back before finally calming down, and his head rose toward the top part of the spider-shaped creature. He noticed multiple purple tentacle-like tendrils.

    "Those were its own food¡­", he thought before taking another step back with heavy apprehension flashing on his face. "This shit is even worse than I thought¡­ Those lightning-fast tentacles only appeared in my sight for a second before the twenty beasts disappeared as if they never existed."

    He backed away another dozen of meters with an unsightly expression. And only when he stood further than thirty-meter from the creature did he feel safe enough to think about a plan. His bodily resource had fallen short, and he didn''t have the strength to execute flashy movement techniques while thinking about how to defeat his opponent. He couldn''t take the risk of dying against the humongous beast, he didn''t dare to.

    "The main problem lay in its weak point is safe due to the height of its legs. Those tentacle-like tendrils seem to have quite the big range¡­.", the further he took the uglier his expression turned. "And if I start climbing on its leg, the probability of it noticing me is nearly one hundred percent¡­"

    He glanced at the head of the spider-shaped creature, and saw the creature finish its meal with one last bite. Each of its purple tentacles had been grabbing a few beasts; he counted each of them, and before long knew that the creature was armed with twelve purple tendrils.

    "Their length is still unknown, but it seems that this creature isn''t the proactive type.", his amber-colored eyes glanced at the black colored pillar-like legs. "Fuck it¡­ It''s decided, I''m taking down those legs. That''s the only way for me to take care of this creature safely!, killing intent flashed in his amber colored pupil.

 Chapter 236 - Ominous Charms Part Three

    Fell glanced at the long and thick black legs in the distance. Those six massive legs supported the humongous creature''s body and seemed strong enough to resist any direct assault.

    "I can''t believe that there don''t exist weakness in those legs!", he thought while approaching the titanic creature in the hope of finding something helpful. He trod carefully, and before long was back in a range where he could see the details in the creature''s legs.

    "Joints!", he thought before his eyes darted everywhere around the creature''s hairy limb. And soon enough, he found what he was looking for. In the middle section of the thick hairy leg, a minute section, much thinner than the rest, was noticed by the young cultivator. Determination arose in his heart, and his figure blurred as he distanced himself from the creature.

    He retraced his steps, and his figure disappeared and reappeared in the vast battlefield. His steps were clearly directed toward the line of defenses of New Casablanca, and after one or two minutes of ghostly movement, he was near the army of MechSuit.

    Due to Fell''s effort, they were holding back quite easily. And even when the effect he had on the beasts disappeared, the advantage they had held didn''t disappear, and the dozens of meter they had pushed forward was still held without any predicament. He appeared in an abrupt manner, startling a few soldiers who saw him appear in a ghostly manner.

    "Do you guys have a few explosives?", he asked in a direct mean without beating around the bushes.

    The man directing the small group hesitated for a second before nodding, and the next moment a small metallic box was dropped next to Fell.

    He opened it with a slight kick of his leg, and couldn''t help but whistle when looking at what was contained in it. "You''re not the shy type, ain''t ya!", he joked with a satisfied grin on his lips. He crouched slightly and grabbed the metallic cubic shaped box in the grasp of his hand; the next moment, the soldiers were surprised to notice that the box had simply disappeared.

    They watched him disappear back in the mass of creature, with dumbfounded expressions on their faces, and their general had to roar to gather their focus back.

    Fell between the sea of monsters and creature-his breath reduced to the utmost limit- his running pattern had a strange rhythm that gave him an unpredictable, near ghostly appearance. He ran at top speed, but no shock wave spread around his body, and only an afterimage accompanied with a soft windy breeze would be left after his passage.

    "I''ll avoid gathering their focus again. If they gang up on me as they did before, I might get into an even worst situation than the last one.", he shuddered while thinking about the dangerous situation where he couldn''t even breathe.

    "And it seems that killing them will raise their fear of me. I''ll avoid doing that as my presence become visible on the battlefield. To kill that humongous creature, although I don''t need to be discreet, I lose nothing by being safe¡­"

    Soon enough, the figure of the gigantic spider turned bigger and bigger in his field of view. And he reentered the one hundred meter radius of the spider; as soon as his feet touched the soil there, he felt as if he had entered a pool of invisible and ephemeral water.

    "Crap! I forgot about that¡­", he stopped in his track in a split second with hesitation flashing in his eyes. "I guess it''s lost for discretion¡­", he mumbled with a sigh.

    Then, just as he was going to abandon the discreet route, a change happened in his soul palace. And a thick ephemeral veil surrounded his body. The substance was similar to the ephemeral water like matter that surrounded the space around the spider; a strange matter that didn''t cling or bother movement.

    As soon as that matter was produced by Fell''s soul palace. He felt as if the link that existed between him and the spider monstrosity ceased to exist as if it was never there.

    "What!?", he mumbled with a strange glimpse in his amber colored eyes. He approached his hand toward the strange matter and sensed the veil that surrounded his body. He tried touching it a few times, but it didn''t react, and he came to the conclusion that it couldn''t be physically touched.

    "The soul way is truly the most mystical¡­", he thought before resuming his steps. He advanced slowly, one step at a time, while focusing on the gigantic creature in front of his eyes. He moved across the mountain of corpses that had nearly turned his body flat and continued approaching the creature with steady steps.

    Before long, he was only a few feet away from the twenty-meter radius around the creature. The moment he had entered it, he sensed an ominous hostility arose from the gigantic creature. One that clearly showed him that he wasn''t welcome there.

    "Let us see how it reacts now¡­". he thought while looking one last time at the veil that clung around his body and cloth, the strange material made from his soul power completely encompassed his figure and didn''t leave a single inch of his body uncovered.

    He stepped twice in a split second, and stopped in his track, turning into a statue while looking at the last step that separated him from the internal radius of the creature. "Worst case scenario, I''ll fight it without avoiding her senses!", he thought with firm determination emboldening his being.

    His leg moved, and his foot rose from the ground. The next moment, he was in the core radius of the creature''s ominous soul senses. He stepped dozens of times in a row, with his five senses focused on every movement in his surroundings, ready to dodge the deadly purple tendrils at any moment notice.

    But time ticked quietly, and nothing major happened. He stood calmly under the massive trunk of the creature, surrounded by the six massive legs that had taken root in the red soil.

 Chapter 237 - Ominous Charms Part Four

    Fell''s formless senses were extended around him. He stood without moving an inch from his spot and patiently waited to see if his cover was effective. With each second passing, beads of sweat could be seen sliding on his forehead and face. And when the one minute mark passed, he exhaled a lengthy sigh.

    "Guess everything is going even better than I thought.", he mumbled before lifting his head. He minutely glanced at the spider''s body over him and began analyzing the most effective way of taking the beast down.

    His eyes were locked at the midsection of the creature''s legs, and he quickly assessed which one he would be taking down first. "The back legs seems to be supporting much more weight than the front legs¡­"

    "The front legs might be thinner, but I could probably cut them with my sword¡­", he then gazed at the hairy back pillar-like legs. "As for those¡­ If I want to take them at the same time, I''ll have to use those explosives¡­"

    His hand moved, and the cubic shaped metallic box that contained the explosive appeared in his hands. He calmly flipped open the lid and took out what looked like rectangular copper plates. He analyzed the object he never used before and quickly found the way how to operate it.

    He simply needed to attach it somewhere. He would then have to press a small dial on a long-distance command board that was also in the metallic box; Then, the rectangular copper-colored plates would explode, turning everything around them into bits.

    "I''m not sure about their firepower. But just to be safe, I''ll make sure to use everything on the back legs.", he mumbled with determination flashing in his eyes.

    He took a step forward, toward the back legs, and safely approach the pillar-shaped legs that had taken root int he ground. "I''m pretty sure that this creature isn''t the agile type. Taking down those legs will be the most effective path in securing the kill."

    He arrived a few meters away from the first back leg, he calmed his heart and breathed deeply twice before jumping as high as he could. He managed to control his strength, and the earth under his leg was left intact despite him using his utmost strength to jump. His figure turned into a bullet that pierced the air-his jump sent his body more than thirty meters above from the ground- and he reappeared a few meters away from the middle section of the glossy black legs.

    His body kept rising as it still contained quite the momentum, and his arm snapped when he attained the middle section of the leg. He skillfully attached the small copper-colored plate on the glossy blackleg, and his body continued rising slightly before beginning to fall down.

    "I''ve been finding it odd that this creature has specialized on bewitching soul base powers¡­", he thought as he felt the air turn sharper during his fall. "From an evolutionary perspective, there isn''t much us to be agile if your body is this massive. Still, her tendrils are still quite agile¡­", he thought during his fall.

    His leg touched the ground without producing a single trembling under him. He moved in an agile manner toward the other leg and reproduced the same action of planting the explosives without raising any sound.

    His movement, ghostly and elusive, were still fast enough, and after a single minute passed, he found out that he had already planted every bomb that was in the metallic box. He began moving away from the creature, and soon enough left the twenty-meter radius around the gigantic creature.

    He kept running away at a fast pace, and only stopped when he arrived near the pile of corpses that had nearly buried him alive. "Well, I guess this is the moment to see if this is going to work.", he exclaimed while fiddling with a small object in his hand. The object was in the shape of a circle and was small enough that it could rest in the middle of his palm, in its center was a single red-colored dial.

    He waited for a few seconds while looking at the gargantuan spider-shaped creature. Then, determination flashed in his eyes, and a vicious expression appeared on his face before he detonated the explosives.

    It took less than a second for the bomb to pick up the signal due to the distance, and the next moment the black pillar shaped legs turned into real pillars of blazing flames. The explosion expended past the legs, and rose to the height where the creature''s body rested in the air.

    It took more than a few seconds for the explosion to die out. During that time, the spider-shaped creature had unleashed an out of the world screech through her vast soul power. The noise was released from her ghastly mouth, and had reverberated through the range she controlled.

    If Fell wasn''t protected by the ephemeral soul-based veil, his mind and soul would have taken quite the hit from the infernal scream. The pain that the creature was feeling seemed to have awoken it from her passive position. And the next moment, Fell felt a wave of soul power wash through the one hundred meter radius surrounding her.

    The action was repeated a few times, and every time it would be accompanied by a strong and horrific shriek that sent chill streaming down the young cultivator''s spine. But, even with a pale face, his leg stood solidly on the ground, and he didn''t move an inch away while gazing at the vile creature.

    Then, it happened. He saw the mass of flesh surrounded by a dark glossy exoskeleton move. The enormous creature tilted forward, and it''s core body part began falling toward the ground. The damage it had taken to its hinder legs seemed to have been enough to disable them completely.

    Fell whistled while glancing at the falling creature in the distance. He couldn''t help but mutter with a satisfied smile on his lips, "Guess those were quite the high-quality material."

 Chapter 238 - Ominous Charms Part Four

    He gazed at the gigantic falling mass in the distance and watched it gradually crash on the red soil, raising massive waves of dirtied land everywhere near the humongous creature.

    The impact didn''t stop there, as it caused a tremor through the ground that was felt by everyone, and massive outbursts of dusty clouds particle rose to a great height. Fell saw the scene from a distance, and couldn''t help but be surprised by the effect caused by the creature''s abnormal weight.

    "Holy shit¡­ And here I thought the spider didn''t weigh that much.", he said with a wry smile drawn on his lips.

    During that time, the awful and grating shriek didn''t stop for even a second. And the creature continued spreading streams of soul reverberation in the hope of finding the bastard that had caused her to go through such pain. Those ripples spread everywhere and made the creature aware of every speck of moving particle existing in a decent range around her.

    Sadly for her. Her desperate, wrathful, search leads to nothing as the young cultivator was shielded by an ephemeral soul-powered veil that surrounded his body.

    From a distance of sixty meters or so, Fell stood with his eyes, not leaving the creature for even a second. He waited patiently for the cloud of dust to fall down, and the surrounding of the beast to calm down. Taking down the hinder legs from the creature wouldn''t kill her, and definitely wouldn''t disable her strength.

    The movement didn''t seem to be the creature''s strength, and the whole action he had taken had the sole goal of taking down the beast to a height where he could generate his full power. In the air, not only would he have a lack of support for his leg, but he would also be unable to avoid the lightning-fast deadly tentacles.

    After a few seconds passed. The air in front of him cleared out, and he managed to look at the result generated by the explosives. The spider-shaped creature stood on the ground, in a crooked and unstable manner that made her look quite pitiable. Her back legs had seemingly turned into fumes, and she tried balancing herself on her four standing legs.

    But their thinness and the fact that she was used to having six legs made it difficult for her to adapt rapidly. She wailed and released rhythmed blood-curling screeches that could reverse the blood flow of mortals. The intensity of the creature''s negative emotion was spectacular and contained a strong resentment toward the person who took her down from her pedestal.

    In this case, the object of her hazardous searches and anger was Fell. The young cultivator began approaching the creature with a determined glare in his eyes, without leaving the animal from his sight for a split second.

    Even if the situation looked in his favor, as he had opened up a row of weak spots on the creature''s humongous body. He still didn''t dare to underestimate it, as a wounded beast would always fight back in the fiercest way, especially when the said animal happened to be quite devious and intelligent.

    "If I appeared swiftly in front of you, you wouldn''t wait a single second before sending those vicious tendrils at my back.", he thought while contouring the creature''s circular body. "I''ll attack from the side and swiftly take down those thin legs that your fighting to stand on."

    "I despise shits like you, such a massive body but still attacking with weak underhanded methods.", he thought with an unsightly expression. He nearly spat out on the red soil as he truly hated this kind of creature.

    It took him less than a minute to cross the distance in a safe manner, and before long, he was facing the back of the creature. The full view of what was left of the back legs appeared in his eyes, and he couldn''t help but stop in his track while appreciating his work a second.

    "Evolved beast or not, looks like weapon made by technology are still quite efficient on you.", he mumbled in his mind before approaching the legs in the middle of the creature''s massive body.

    Little did the young cultivator know that those explosives were rare quality resources that the higher-ups had been stockpiling in their treasury. Their simple design and rustic looking shape weren''t in accord with the tremendous technological advances used in their creation.

    The creature darted slightly left and right, as it was troubled in keeping her balance, but Fell wasn''t scared by the possibility of being buried under it. Confident in his own running speed, and movement technique, he approached the middle section and drew Soldier''s Fortune out of his spatial pocket.

    The blade drew a magnificent semi-circular curve in the air. The air parted in two when it came in contact with the weapon''s sharp edge, and produce a minute noise akin to the sound release by a high pressured water jet.

    Thankfully, his blade was also contained by his soul veil, and his sword intent didn''t appear in the humongous spider monstrosity in front of him. He closed his eyes for a few seconds and began searching for the best sliding point on the creature''s glossy leg.

    Although thinner, the middle and front legs weren''t underestimated by the young cultivator. He decided to use his strongest move to take both of the middle legs in one fell swoop.

    He regulated his breathing, and even in a standing position, managed to attain a deep meditative state. With eyes closed, a thin spot on the creature''s leg appeared with crystal clarity. With the appearance of that spot in his mind, a gut hunch overtook him, assuring him that that was where he should aim his blow.

    His concentration rose by the second, and the pressure surrounding him rose with each beat from his heart. Absolute calm overtook him, and each minute noise from the battlefield disappeared one after the other. The connection he had with Soldier''s Fortune peaked to a point he never attained, and he felt as if he had come to this world with a sword in his hand.

    His concentration soon attained a peak. His body didn''t move an inch during that time, and only a minute movement could be detected around his abdomen; the slow, yet steady and robust motion came from his diaphragm. Still, contrary to his immobile body, his mind was executing one of the techniques he had gained in the battle center.

    The spatial scripture was one of the most potent techniques he had at hand. His degree of mastery over it was so low that he needed to condition himself to execute its most straightforward application.

    The young cultivator''s mind boiled, and the hyper perceptive state was unleashed without any effort. The next moment, in his sea of consciousness, had appeared a half-drawn seal.

    The outer line was drawn in half a beat, yet the construct of the seal seemed to be on the verge of falling apart.

    Fell didn''t panic, as even cursing would cause the seal to disappear from his mental construct. A wave of chilling energy arose in his soul palace and refreshed his heart and thoughts. The next moment, seventy percent of the seal was completed in a one go.

    Compared to the last time he had used the seal. His efficiency at mentally drawing him had been halved by two, yet as the character was turning clear, its instability was also raised by the youth''s hasty attempt.

    In the end, even if he had kept part of his attention toward his surroundings to avoid being splashed into a paste by the weight of the creature. The progress on the drawing of the seal continued, and before long, a fully drawn seal was hovering inside of his soul palace.

    This time, probably due to the fact that the white hole filled with thick multicolored lines akin to veins had appeared in his body. He detected something different around the drawn seal and approached it using his ego body.

    His arm approached the seal, and the next moment he clenched his fist around the materialized scripture.

    The moment he clenched his fist around it, a change happened, and the seal disappeared, absorbed inside of his ego body. His real body''s eyes opened in a lightning-fast motion-a cloudy, yet conscious vibe was exuded from them- and for the first time, he moved.

    His leg produced strength on the floor under his feet, turning it into a fine powdery mixture of dust and soil. The next instant, his figure broke through space and reappeared high in the air.

    Surprise flashed on the youth''s face as he hadn''t expected his own movement to attain that speed. Soldier''s Fortune shone in his hand, and his hidden and contained sword intent surfaced in grand daylight.

    He appeared on the radar of the humongous creature. But sadly, it was too late as Fell''s blow had already been executed.

 Chapter 239 - Ominous Charms Part Five

    Soldier''s Fortune appeared in bright daylight. Every speck of will hidden in it burst out in an incandescent, yet an immaterial and ephemeral burst of energy that coursed toward the glossy black creature''s leg.

    A soul-wrenching screech left the creature''s horrific mouth, and the purple-colored tentacles darted toward the position of the sword.

    But it was far too late, and the creature was half a beat behind Fell in terms of reaction speed. A deep line appeared in a minute intersection of the creature''s leg. The next moment a clear distinction arose in the glossy surface of the black colored leg. Without any surprise, the lower part of the leg began stayed in place, but the rest of the leg still attached the creature slid on what was left and began falling toward the ground.

    A satisfied glint surfaced on the young cultivator''s amber-colored face, but that wasn''t all. A minute tremor ran through space, and without any notice, another line appeared on the second leg that was attached in the middle part of the creature''s exoskeleton.

    A wave of ephemeral and incorporeal sharp intent burst out from the line that surfaced on the glossy blackleg, and the same scene was repeated once again. Two long thin legs could be seen plunged deeply on the ground, but they were no longer connected with the spider''s body.

    "Wryyyyyyyyyyyyy!", a blood curling screech reverberated through the space around the humongous creature. The scream was filled with tremendous anger and pain, a bewitching wrathful intention that resented the puny human that had appeared in her senses.

    Without any hesitation, her tentacles darted toward the human''s frail figure, with the intent to penetrate his fragile physical body. She couldn''t understand how the puny human had managed to take down four of her legs with her only noticing his work in the last moment, but she was hell-bent on smiting him with wrathful anger.

    Her soul-infused ghastly wails broke through the void and encompassed the figure of the young cultivation-who instantly felt the pressure around him raise- an alarm rose in his head, and he instinctively glanced at the ephemeral veil surrounding him.

    What he saw nearly caused a jolt in his heart; Bubbles had made their appearance in the outer layer of the soul veil surrounding his body, and as the pressure from the spider creature rose around him, the bubbles grew in size. Showing the instability his defenses were going through.

    He didn''t know what would happen if he faced the creature''s attack through his body alone. But an ominous hunch made want to avoid that situation at any cost, and with that thought, a change happened in his soul palace.

    A fresh, chilling breeze left his soul palace and began attaching itself on the veil. The strange, cold, aura swiftly made the difference, and the noticeable bubbles on the soul-powered curtain diminished at speed noticeable for the naked eye.

    "Soul power is the best medium to defend against another soul-based attack¡­", he thought in a split second before noticing something approaching his body at an extraordinary speed.

    Seven, purple colored, tentacles made their way toward his position in an unstoppable spring. They pierced through the air and whipped at his position in the blink of an eye. An explosion reverberated in the place where he stood, and the wind screeched as shock-waves spread from the strength contained in the tentacles'' momentum.

    Fell panicked slightly when noticing the movement in his surroundings. But the refreshing sensation coming from his soul palace made his thought process faster, and calmer. He glanced at the purple tendril moving through the air and wasn''t especially surprised by their speed as he had already seen them in action.

    At most, he would say that those tentacles were slightly faster due to the creature''s anger. He felt that his ego body still contained part of the spatial scripture, and he stepped forward.

    The step was effectuated in mid-air and was did by Fell due to a peculiar gutsy feeling that the mystical seal could be used in such means. The action may be seen as dangerous, but ever since his soul palace had opened up, he had felt his mind turn keener on what he could do with his strength.

    The step looked simple. Similar in many senses to how he had walked in his life, it wasn''t hurried and was composed as if he was walking among a group of individuals.

    In the last moment, right where his feet were pressing on the air under him, a change happened.

    His figure blurred, and multiple ghostly bodies appeared next to his own. Then, in a ghostly and surreal manner, his body blinked, and he disappeared in mid-air.

    The tentacle hit the empty air where he had been, and the air visibly shook from the strength contained in the blow from the seven purple extensions.

    The scene might have taken quite a bit to describe. But all of this happened in split seconds, before the young cultivator''s body even had the take to begin free falling. From his appearance in the humongous creature''s soul radar, to his lightning-fast attack using part of the scripture, then his escape in extremis.

    In the humongous creature''s view, the puny human had appeared in a moment before disappearing akin to a ghost. Everything had seemed too ephemeral and surreal for it.

    It had stood on top of the evolutionary chain. Abusing her strength left and right-growing stronger by the day- it had climbed to the peak of the place where it had lived.

    Never in her beastly life had she felt resentment this big. And her mind jolted black when she felt her purple tendril hit the void, the pleasurable sensation of shredding the puny human to fleshly rags didn''t happen.

    She sensed her large body shift forward even more, and a weird shriek escaped her horrifying mouth once again.

    Not only did the otherworldly beastly scream contain her uncountable hate and anger toward the puny figure, something else was added to the mix.

    Fear and ignorance had dissolved with her resentment to form an horrifying- heart wrenching- scream that reverberated through the battlefield.

    Everywhere around the North Wall. The sounds, akin to a scream from the devil itself, spread through the entirety of the battlefield and was heard by every single life form that existed there.

    The emotion felt by the creature were fully infused in that scream. And her special soul power made that component even noticeable by the most normal of mortal, be it among the beasts of the human present.

    The purple tentacle-like tendrils were retraced back in a snap, and the creature did its utmost in balancing her body whit the two legs it had. It released multiple ungodly sounds and noises from her horrific deadly mouth, but it was to no avail as it sensed her effort go in waste.

    Having only two legs to support herself was too much for its heavy weight. And it was only a matter of time before her two forward legs broke from the overexertion.

    Not far from the hazardously moving enormous creature, close to the mountain of beast corpses that laid in the hundred-meter radius of the creature. A frail figure, with a size ridiculous in comparison with the enormous creature, appeared out of nowhere.

    An apparent black hue could be seen in the space around the place where he had surfaced, with clear spatial fluctuation that took a few seconds to die out.

    His face was pale, and he felt as if his whole body was shrunken to a ridiculous size before being sent in a vortex filled with twisted rotation streams. Yet, at the same time, he had felt a rising inward pressure colliding with his body, and forcing itself on him during the spatial mid-air step.

    During that time, he had also felt the complete opposite. An outward pressure that gave him the sensation his body had more than tripled in size had taken hold of his guts.

    His senses were in complete shambles, and his lips trembled continuously while the youth had troubled calming his twisted senses. His perception had gone through a roller coaster during the special moves, and the little amount of time that had passed wasn''t enough for him to recover.

    "What the hell?!", he mumbled after a lengthy breath. A minute had passed, and although his face was noticeably more colorful and seemed healthier. His eyes were still marked with the horror and panic his mind had gone through during the spatial step. "I''ll never try something new in a dangerous battle.", he briskly promised himself as his mind had truly gone through something he hadn''t expected.

    "Unless I''m obliged, I won''t use technique I didn''t train in real battle¡­ Unless I''m obliged.", he added with a slight smile on his face. Even with the fear he had felt still fresh, he still couldn''t block the wave of satisfaction and dopamine that washed his heart and mind.

 Chapter 240 - Worlds End Rapsody Part One

    It took the young cultivator a few seconds to gather his mind back. His sweat freshened under the cold freeze, and the aftertaste of the spatial step began disappearing.

    "This scripture... What the hell is this strength!", he mumbled while inhaling a lengthy breath of fresh air.

    He felt his mind clear up, and before long recovered from having moved through space. He turned around, and gazed at the product of his work. The titanic spider like figure collapse on the front leg, the noise released from her thin spider leg creeking and breaking under her weight could be assimilated to thundering claps.

    Then the event, unstopable and unfortunate, happened and with an undescribable last deep acute clap. The spider shriek one last time before hitting the floor, the earth roared and trembled from the impact. An impact powerful to the point when

    "Time to end the beast.", he crisply exclaimed before darting forward.

    He disreguared the small rock speeding at his way, and confronted them using his sole body. The speeding shards broke down when they made contact with his body.

    He speed through the barrage of small object raised by the impact of the creature. For a cultivator of his level, this amount of distance was something that could be crossed in the blink of an eye. And before long, he arrived near the creature''s intact trunk, and climbed on it''s mountain sized body.

    The trembling under his leg gave him the impression that he was standing on a mountain. But this amount of hazard wasn''t enough to stop his tracks, and with his determinated advanced climbed ner the head of the creature.

    Before long, he was met with a lightning fast attack from the deadly purple tendril. They pierced through the air toward his direction with a threatening aura that pusled with bursts of ominous energy.

    "I can''t afford to take hits from them or my soul palace might be injured due to the beast''s massive soul energy.", a single glance showed him the danger contained in those deadly weapons. A single brush or scrap on the mental formed veil surrounding his body would be enough to leave his soul palace open for the constant mental attack release by the creature''s body.

    Just standing near her already caused constant shredding and bubblings to appear on his mental veil, and his soul palace was constantly sending waves upon waves of energy to support it.

    "Any hit is enough for me to go down a deadly path.", he thought concluding his analyzis of the purple tentacles.

    However even when confronted with an immensely fear inducing situation, his leg didn''t stop for even a single second, and they even doubled their work. He sped toward them on his own, with courage filling his hearth.

    He couldn''t fail now that he had a creature himself a decent situation to take down the beast. And even as his mind was assaulted with dozens of negative thoughts due to the humongous ominous energy released by the creature, he clenched his hand around his weapon and valiantly marched forward.

    With Soldier''s Fortune directed in front of him, he took a fierce and heavy step on the glossy black shell of the creature. The strength lying in his body exploded out, and the shell cracked under his step and potent bodily strength flooded toward the hand grabbing his sword.

    His sword rose up, then fell down in one sudden manner that felt the tentacle no time to react. Yet the purple tendril he hacked in half didn''t stop, and followed the advance of the other six tentacle.

    Fell didn''t hesitate for a split second, and began taking another step forward. Even more weight could be sensed from his leg, and he viciously stomped down once again.

    The strange and heavy movement caused his muscles to bulg out in a rhythmed manner, and the hand clenching Soldier''s Fortune turned unsightly as it was soon filled with dozens of bulging veins. They trembled and moved, in a wormlike manner, due to the potent stream of strength transfered in his sword.

    The same action was reproduced twice, and the same result happened. Another tentacle was splited in half by the straightforward attack.

    Fell''s body could be seen changing with each attack. His muscles could be seen reducing with the naked eye. With each attack, and with each move he effectuated, a decent size of resources would leave his body.

    Thankfully, his body''s resource were solid enough to support the massive consumption. But the black haired youth didn''t stop there, his eyes glowed with the piercing might of a torchlight and in one movement sequence hacked five time in a row.

    One tentacle after another got cleanly halved in two, but their advanced wasn''t stopped and it could be even be said that their aggressivity explode to the top.

    They sped toward Fell while taking strange angles. Taking him from multiple spots of his surrounding, with each tentacle attacking from one of the eight directions.

    But it was to no avail, as with each advance they were welcome with a powerful blow that would cut a sizable amount of their bodies.

    Still their ridiculous size made them difficult to completely take down in one go, but with each step he approached the head, and with each step their sizes would be gradually bitten off.

    His unstoppable advance made the creature panic even more. Its shrieks were incensed with every step that broke the shell from the spider.

    Fell didn''t hesitate and gave his all in every single attack. His muslces bled and his bones screamed with the attack. His relentless, near unstoppablen advance managed to turn the long purple tentacle into short bleeding protuberance.

    They still tried to viciously attack Fell, but the strength containing them was far less than what had inhabitated it.

    But, that didn''t come without any price. His muscles had skrunked to a ridiculous size, and before long he only looked like a scrawny figure. The filthy red rags that hang on his shoulders didn''t make his appearance any better.

    His cloth, in poor condition, and the massive change in his body that accompanied the outburst of strength released gave him a ghastly vibe.

    His frail figure stood near an intersection that connected the trunk of the creature to her horrific head.  The glossy black colored exoskeleton  he was standing on was constantly tilting and reverberating in strange attempts to move.  But it was to no avail as Fell legs seemed to be glued to the titanic arachnid.

    Even with the skeletic state his body was in, it could be seen that it was still contained with a vast strength that would only disappear with his last breath.

    "Time to finish the job.", he calmly said while looking at the long horizontal crevace existing in front of him. He closed his eyes, breathed in and envisionned a blade sharp enough to completely sever what the spot that connected the head with the main trunk of the creature.

    His thought were accompanied with desesperate shrieks coming from the spider monstruosity, and her soul attacks were nonetheless easily dissolved by Fell''s defense.

    "There, right there!", he exclaimed with a smile. His eyes opened widely, and he nonchalently took two step on his right. "Yes. I only need to hit those two spots, and the head will fall down in itself."

    He bent down, arched his back slighty in a curve, and inhaled a slow sharp and acute breath.

    He calculated the angle of his attack in a precise manner and waited for the right moment. His focus aligned with his sword, and his stance turned even lower and lower with time passing.

    Then, right where he attained a crounching position akin to a tiger ready to pounce, he stoppped. His movement came to a stop, and his muscles didn''t move a single inch.

    His heart beat slowed down. Gradually, a mass of aura could be sensed around him. A formless yet overpowering aura, akin to the incarnation of strength itself arose from the frail looking figure of the black haired youth.

    "I can see.", he opened his eyes in a split second and moved without any hesitation is his movement. Movement that shouldn''t have been produced by a body that had already overexerted itself.

    His bladed glinted, and a massive flash of light bursted out of the edge of Soldier''s Fortune. The next moment,  multiple semi circular curves appeared in the air and a drawing marked the sky near the north wall of New Casablanca.

    The shape of the accumulated move he had executed was a simple butterfly that flew toward the intersection on the titanic sized creature.

    Fell''s sword attack broke through the void. The next moment, they were already deeply ingrained inside of the glossy black shell and were beginning to slash the flesh under it.

    But that wasn''t all. Before the attack had the time to evaporate the entirety of its momentum and energy. He moved once again. One line appeared in front of him, overlaying the massive crevace on the shell.

 Chapter 241 - Worlds End Rapsody Part Two

    The moment he unleashed the last sword strike. A wave of dizziness overtook him, and his body nearly tumbled on the black glossy shell under him. Thankfully, he managed to find his footing back and glanced at the result of his relentless attack.

    "I can already sense it. Her lifespan flowing out of her, akin to a hole in a bottle¡­", he mumbled while feeling the change happening to the creature''s life essence.

    Time ticked quietly, and a few seconds passed without any change happening to the situation. Ghastly shrieks escaped the creature''s horrific mouth in a continuous manner; their intensity rose after the round of attack chained by the black-haired youth.

    And before long, what ought to happen happened. The intersection between the head and the main trunk released an otherworld noise akin to a massive wood branch snapping. The head gradually began weighing down too much for the injured spot that linked it with the rest of the spider''s body.

    And with those kinds of injuries, what was ought to happen gradually happened. The head fell with the might on an avalanche, and another round of dust cloud''s billows happened. A satisfying sensation traveled the young cultivator the moment he saw the scene unravel in front of him.

    He felt as if this scene of him taking down the fierce creature had been worth the sacrifice he had done one after the other during their fight. He couldn''t help but look at the arm grasping Soldier''s Fortune, and a self-deprecating smile drew itself on his bony figure.

    "I''m going to need a lot of food to fix this malnourished state my body is in¡­", he said with a pitiful tone. He couldn''t help but feel as if he was back in the days where he had lacked food for more than two weeks. His body had looked so malnourished that a few bones he couldn''t name could be seen on his frail and bony figure.

    The trembling under him soon came to a stop, and the main trunk filled with an incredible amount of vitality was soon void of any movement. Fell finally moved and began descending from his spot on the back of the dead spider monstrosity. He quickly finished his descent from the creature''s humongous body and landed near the head of the creature.

    "Yikes, what an ugly face we''ve got there.", he mumbled from between his parched up lips. A single weak laugh escaped from his weak body, as even that could somehow tire him now. He glanced for a long moment at the creature that gave him this much trouble.

    Even if the episode where he had nearly been buried alive wasn''t exactly caused by it, he had still nearly died when coming for the creature''s life.

    As he gazed at the creature with a mindless gaze and was in the midst of commemorating the numerous event that arose during their intense fight. A change arose from the inside of the dead creature''s head.

    From inside of her unsightly crooked mouth. A purple-colored gas flew out of the creature''s aperture, and wisps of that strange matter gradually made their way toward the young cultivator.

    "Damn, I''m hungry¡­", thought the young cultivator in the middle of his dozing. His nose twitched a few time, and he inevitably took a deep breath as he felt a strange aroma in the air around him.

    The moment he finished taking a deep breath to his lungs, his eyes opened widely as he felt a strange effect in his body. And that change concerned the most recent mysteries that were related to his body. Inside of his soul palace that could be entered by the white-colored hole in his body, the mysterious purple gas had made its way to this special place.

    "Wh-?", he mumbled incoherently while controlling his ego body. He gazed at the mysterious gas appearing and tried focusing his senses back to the real world. "What is this!?", he nearly scream out loud when he finally saw the odd scene in front of his sight.

    The surroundings of the humongous head had already transformed into a hazy purple cloud smell with an odd aroma. Fell couldn''t tell if the aroma smelled good or not, but an especially sweet yet odd tone that hung around his mouth when he came back to his senses alerted his senses.

    He took a step back, and a pained gasp of pain forced him to absorb part of the purple cloud surrounding him. "Fuck, I''m too weak to walk¡­ I need to rest. With this cloud surrounding me, I don''t know what might arise after inhaling it¡­", his thought spun in his thought at lightning-fast speed.

    But Fell''s muscles didn''t move at all. The young, black-haired, cultivator could be seen standing with his hand around his face. An alert expression could be seen on his face, but after a few efforts from the youth, he managed to calm down part of his inner panic.

    "I need to calm down¡­ Panicking serves me nothing in the current situation. First, I need to regulate my blood flow to avoid the propagation of the strange mixture through my organism."

    "Sadly, I have already inhaled part of this thing¡­ I just hope that hose quantities aren''t enough to take me down¡­", he sadly didn''t think he had the luxury to have the chance that the strange gas might be beneficial to him.

    Anything coming from an ominous creature such as this would never be good. Those were the kind of thoughts that hang around the youth''s head.

    "Fuck¡­", he thought as he felt the strange purple cloud travel toward his internal organs through his blood. Although he did his best in controlling his blood flow, his state was terrible to the point where the amount of influence he managed to produce was too minute to cause anything.

    Suddenly, the small parts of the purple clouds that existed around the white-colored hole near Fell''s head disappeared one after the other. They turned into wisps of purple snakes that turned ephemeral and flew through his flesh toward the white-colored hole.

    "My soul palace!", he thought as he didn''t know yet if the situation was good or bad. His attention refocused on the mysterious space, and the sight of his soul palace appeared as he possessed his ego body once again. There he saw the source of his panic, wisps upon wisps of purple cloud rose in one spot of his soul palace.

    Those purple wisps soon gathered together in one cluster, and before long, a dense small-sized purple clouds had appeared there.

    "What the hell is that matter?", he asked himself before approaching it with his ego body.

    He couldn''t help but have apprehension fill his heart, but he soon remembered that this place was where his soul existed. If the purple cloud had made his way here, then if it was dangerous to him in any way, he was already in a bad position.

    "Well, nothing to worry now that it''s already there.", he exclaimed with a wry expression on his ego body. He hovered toward the strange purple cluster of the strange matter, and before long, he stood in front of it.

    He extended his hand, and a wisp of purple cloud flew out of the ball of clustered wisps and turned into an arrow that darted toward Fell. In a split second, it arrived at his hand due to the short distance that separated them. And before he even had the time to have a last-minute worry though, he felt the effect of the strange mixture.

    At first, he felt his mind go blank from the strength of the ominous energy laying in the properties of the purple cloud. Then he felt the pure potency of soul power existing in the purple wisp fill every crook and inch of his ego body.

    As his ego body was a reflection of the large space that existed inside of the veined white colored hole. Small parts of the large space began acquiring a minute but detectable purple hue, and as he absorbed more of the wisp energy content, he felt his soul energy grow stronger.

    After finishing the absorption of the small purple wisp, a surprised expression flashed on his face, and he immediately regained control of his body.

    "This is definitely good stuff!", he exclaimed in a high pitched voice before humming a deep breath the air around him. He breathed a maximum of the purple cloud surrounding him and began walking toward the head of the creature.

    "This is coming from here, very good stuff must definitely exist inside of it for such good stuff to arose around it.", he exclaimed with greed brightening his amber-colored eyes.

    His figure swiftly moved through the cloud, and while taking deep breathes to inhale the purple cloud, he made his way toward the humongous ugly head.

    His greed had been kindled by the discovery, and in his sight, the ugly head had turned much more beautiful.

 Chapter 242 - Worlds End Rapsody Part Three

    He sped through the terrain in front of him. And after a few quick steps, he was standing in front of the humongous sized head of the dead creature. The purple cloud here was the thickest and was continuously being generated by the head in a perpetual manner.

    "Oh.", his mouth opened in surprise. He opened his mouth to the largest size he could achieve and inhaled every speck of cloud that existed near the head. Time ticked slowly, and his mouth was still open, inhaling a constant stream of purple haze inside of the youth''s system.

    Dozens of second passed, but his long breath was still going on. He only stopped after the one minute mark passed, with his stomach having since long attained the size of a round balloon. He had a few trouble staying on his feet as his lungs were filled with a high volume of the purple cloud surrounding him.

    "Good stuff!", he exclaimed with wisps of purple cloud escaping from his mouth with every word spoken. He exhaled and resumed the action of breathing, abnormally, excessive breath while approaching the head.

    He stood in front of it, with his head only touching the lower part of the mouth in the head''s creature. "How should I do this?", he thought with Soldier''s Fortune appearing in the grasp of his hand.

    He sized the creature''s head in his mind, and the creature''s skull turned transparent under his piercing gaze. "Good stuff should be generated inside of the brain!", he exclaimed with greed glinting in his amber-colored eyes.

    As soon as he identified the highest possibility where the treasure could be hidden, his hand moved. A sharp intent gathered around his sword, and perpendicular slash swiftly made contact with the lying head.

    The smooth sound released by his blade coming in contact with the creature''s head couldn''t be described. It resembled the sound made when a steaming hot knife was used to cut through butter.

    "This thing is still quite resistant¡­", exclaimed the bony figured youth before sending a kick hurling toward the gigantic head. One would ask himself if a kick coming from a fragile looking teen could do anything to the creature. But aided with the preceding slash, the upper part of the head flew a few meters away, leaving the brain open.

    A pungent odor swiftly escaped from the creature''s naked brain. Added inside of it was an ominous sweet odor that made the hair on the youth''s body raised in an instant. He couldn''t help but hesitate for a few seconds, but as soon as he remembered the effect the purple cloud had on his body, he resumed his action.

    With a light tap on the ground, his figure flew upward, and he landed without any difficulty on the creature''s head. His feet nearly slid when he landed on the creature''s brain, and he couldn''t help but curse out loud when that happened.

    "Well¡­ Time to dig in!", he said with a mixed expression. In the end, looking through a creature''s brain wasn''t something easy to do. Especially when the brain, in itself, was the size of a small rocky mountain. His forearm snapped, and his sword released movement similar to when he cooked.

    Soft yet sharp moves that were focused on cutting without damaging the flesh. With those fluid and well-ordered moves from his sword, he managed to take away a few layer from the creature''s brain. He sniffed a few time-his nose twitched and he couldn''t help but exclaimed in an excited voice.

    "I can smell that it''s closer!", his eyes glowed with a strange light. With his salivating lips and the peculiar glint in his eyes, Fell couldn''t look any weirder in the middle of the battlefield. He put his sword inside of his spatial pocket, having decided that the rest of the job could be done by hand.

    He crouched down, with his knee touching the soft jiggly surface of the brain, and began taking digging the brain with his bare hand. A bloodied scene then unraveled, unseen by most people or creatures on the battlefield. And thankfully, none of them saw that, or they would genuinely feel like washing their eyes with acid.

    The small excited jiggle released from the dirtied black-haired youth would leave anyone in panic. His psychotic glint induced due to his nascent greed didn''t add anything better to the picture ¡ª a true psychopath digging inside of a creature''s head with his bare hand.

    But Fell didn''t mind, and the small part of his heart that found the work nauseating and tedious soon began having fun. His bony looking hand would dig deep in the creature''s brain. Then he would take out huge chunks of the jelly looking brain matter.

    And before long, the ungrateful work finished paying. Just as finished taking out a ridiculous amount of white and grey matter, a strange looking rock entered his vision. His movement stopped, and his hand dropped the nauseous chunk of brain held by it.

    "That''s it!", he exclaimed with his hand jumping toward the strange looking rock. His fingertip made contact with the strange looking rock, and a shiver traversed his spine with a tremendous flow of information flooding his mind.

    A thought resurfaced, and he quickly fought to fight against the sensation.

    Thankfully, the white hole in his body absorbed every speck of influx that entered his body. "Those aren''t information!?", he exclaimed in surprise. "This is the creature''s resentment and memories!", he yelled after identifying them.

    He swiftly isolated them inside of his soul palace, and focused on controlling the rock in his hand. The strange, ominous yet attractive, purple color coming from the rock was reflected on his eyes. "Beautiful¡­", a soft mumbled escaped from between his dry lips. He then took his sight away from the rock and looked at his surroundings.

    "As soon as I touched the rock, the dispersion of the purple cloud immediately stopped¡­", he thought while gazing at the changes that happened to the rock. He stood immobile with his eyes taking glances left and right at his surroundings.

    And before long, he got a confirmation for what he had said. The thick purple cloud surrounding the creature''s head was thinning with each second passing. "Can this process be reversed¡­?", he asked himself with a pensive expression. His eyes glanced at the sky, and he remembered the battle center''s word.

    "You can''t know if you didn''t try!", he briskly said in a matter of fact tone.

    As soon as he took the decision of trying to absorb the purple cloud back inside of the strange rock, he swiftly tried. Wisps of ephemeral and immaterial soul power escaped from his soul palace; they left from the white veined hole that existed near his head and began moving toward his hand.

    An incandescent light on the surface of the strange rock, and the next moment he felt a deep and overpowering resentment escape from the strange rock. "Crap, it''s fighting me!", he mumbled through his gritted teeth. But the young cultivator didn''t abandon, and fought through the resistance coming from the strange rock.

    Another influx of energy was released from the white colored hole in his body, and his arm and hand were soon over flooded with waves upon waves of soul based energy washing the space around him.

    A battle for supremacy happened with Fell''s hand being the battlefield, and time began passing with no party winning over the other. The strange rock seemed to have recognized the signature energy of Fell''s soul, and began resisting his attempt at controlling it with a relentless anger and wrath.

    Flashes of memories flooded the mind of the young cultivator. But he sealed each of them inside of his soul palace, not leaving them the time to affect his current work. But that was all he could do, and before long he noticed that the resentment coming from the rock was raising to the limit.

    "Crap! If it continues like this. I''m afraid that even consuming the energy from the rock will become a hassle.".

    Then, right at the moment where he had expected it the least. Sign of weakening appeared on the strange rock, and Fell saw an opening unravel in front of his eyes. Without needing to remind himself, a flood of soul energy rushed to the piece of strange oval rock and inside of it was an unquestionable intent coming from Fell.

    "Absorb back Everything!", his voice boomed at the same time as the intent appeared around the rock. The strange rock flashed once in incandescent light, then a scene akin to space moving backward appeared around the creature''s head. Every single wisp of purple cloud-except for a few exceptions- reverted their track backward and began flowing toward the strange rock.

    The young cultivator''s eyes lit up as his hand began the direction where every wisp of purple cloud made its way. "Even more Good Stuff!", he exclaimed with a smile on his lips.

 Chapter 243 - Worlds End Rapsody Part Four

    Before long, the surroundings of the head cleared out, and nearly every purple wisp was absorbed back inside of the stone. Fell continued gazing at the rock and only began moving when he noticed that the stone wasn''t absorbing any more wisp.

    "What the hell?", he exclaimed while looking around him. He notices a few wisps hovering here and there around him, and moved the stone around while sending an influx of soul power inside of it. The purple stone flashed with an intense light, and a suction appeared around its surface.

    The small scattered wisps of purple clouds began once again moving. They calmly moved toward the stone, and before long, dozens of wisps floated near the stone. But none of them approached the stone and only stood close to it. At last, one of the wisps moved and finally made contact with the stone, but nothing happened.

    "Guess you don''t want them anymore¡­ Then, those are mine!", he exclaimed before sitting down on an intact spot of the brain. He assumed a meditative stance and began regulating his breath. Contrary to the greedy, hasty, and unusual breath from before- he was now using the methodical breathing technique he had learned from Anzar.

    His diaphragm moved and trembled in a fast and rhythmic pattern. A large amount of air entered his mouth in a short period of time, within them could be seen purple wisp that had been hovering around near the brain.

    As soon as they invaded his body, a strange suction appeared from the veined white-colored hole that existed near his head. One, two, three wisps entered his system, and before long, the same was done for the rest of them.

    He inhabited his ego body and saw the result of his absorption. In a random corner of his soul palace, hovered a ball of purple color the size of a small pool.

    Fell approached it and, without any hesitation, threw himself inside of it, and used the fact that he was in a meditative state to refine the ominous energy. The moment he made contact with it, a wave of spiritual power assaulted his brain and images upon images of the humongous creature''s life appeared in his mind.

    A cloudy and hazy hue appeared in his ego body''s eyes, and flashes of purple color were resealed on the surface of his body. Veins of purple appeared on the surface of his persona, and the next moment roars began escaping from his throat.

    It didn''t take a few seconds for the resentment present in the energy to assault his mind. Ghosts of the many beasts the vicious had eaten appeared everywhere through Fell''s soul palace; their roars and barks should every crook and nanny of vast white extension of his sea of thought.

    But the young cultivator didn''t let the resentment in the energy bother his absorption, and the next moment he began engulfing treads upon treads of the purple-colored pool. The flashes of ghostly bestial figures intensified, and his soul palace shook from the nuisance they caused.

    His mind blanked, but his greed automated his action. He absorbed, absorbed, and continued absorbing as if hooked by the soul-powered substance. With particle of soul-powered purple substance, his soul palace would materialize even more, and the space existing inside of the white hole would grow vaster.

    He noticed the peculiar progress that arose at a fast speed due to the inexplicable and intrinsic link existing between his soul palace and the ego body he was controlling. His perception of time trembled, but his state of mind wasn''t shaken as the progress of his soul palace was his own.

    At first, the memories of the fierce beast that flashed in his thought were disorganized and fast to the point where he couldn''t understand the start from the ending.

    But with time passing and his mind strengthening, he began slowly comprehending them. And before long, the numerous roars and growls from the ghostly bestial figure turned into silent whispers that couldn''t bother him.

    Scene after scenes coming from the creature''s life flashed in his mind. Times before the humongous creature began relying on her vast soul power to hunt for her food, and where her sole attack was based on her sharp fang and deadly tentacles.

    The way she fought against many other fierce beasts was relayed to the young cultivator through the strange memory transfer. And before long, he felt as if he had absorbed the entirety of the intelligent beast''s life.

    His ego body''s hair had acquired a vivid purple color, and hazy mist hangs around his body. A strange purple glint on the ego body''s eyes before he nonchalantly closed his eyes with a minute satisfied smile.

    His eyes opened widely, and a vague yet noticeable purple hue flashed in an ominous glint. Fell sighted for a second and licked his lips in the same way a salesman would be getting an aftertaste of his first pay.

    "Time to take a look at how everything is going on there¡­", he thought while trying to sense the blood essence from the army of MechSuit. Unfortunately, his weakened state made the job harder, and the fact that the battlefield was filled with hundreds upon hundreds of creatures made it even worst.

    "I can only trust in their strength.", he thought before moving away from the giant corpse of the creature. His slightly energetic steps took him toward the place held by the army of MechSuit, and before long, he was back in the middle of the sea of beasts.

    Numerous roars reverberated through the battlefield, they overlayed on top of each other and formed a humongous amount of decibel that washed the battlefield.

    "Noisy¡­", mumbled Fell while entering the deserted area filled with hundreds of beasts. "Shut up!", a deep, powerful voice left the lips of the young, frail, man.

    A formless wave of soul power containing Fell''s intent traveled through the battlefield, and the next moment complete silence had overtaken the mass of beast. In the distance, the last few sounds released by the beast died down, and what was left through the battlefield was complete and utter silence.

    "Now that is much better.", he exclaimed in a satisfied and loud tone. He walked unhurriedly through the vast battlefield, the numerous beasts filling every inch of the soil on the north wall were constantly shivering. Their pupil was slit, and their eyes darted left and right while continuously avoiding Fell''s slowly approaching figure.

    His formless soul power had invaded every space of the battlefield. And although the effect of this technique wasn''t efficient to the point of the titanic spider, it still stunned those creatures for a long period of time and left Fell enough time to rejoin the army of MechSuit.

    "It is still quite far from her strength¡­", he said with silent sight escaping from his lips. He was truly tired from the long day, and couldn''t help but feel tired after having battled one strong creature after another. And sadly, his recent progress with his soul cultivation base didn''t refresh him enough.

    He gazed at the numerous creature around him, their figure akin to statues, and the young man couldn''t help himself and cracked a satisfied grin toward them. "The cost of this strange spell is still worth its use.", he said in a laid back manner.

    "I''ll take my time and check a creature or two¡­", he thought while licking his lips. His rush toward the spidery monstrosity took him less than a minute, but the time he took to come back was far longer, and it was more than ten minutes later that he saw the army of MechSuit in the distance.

    Among the numerous frozen beasts, dozens of particularly good tasting ones had disappeared inside of the young cultivator''s spatial pocket.

    "Something is moving among them!", exclaimed one of the soldiers. It had been a few minutes that every single beast on the battlefield stopped moving, and even if when they didn''t stop and continued slaughtering them, there were no change in their behavior.

    "It''s that cultivator.", responded one of the MechSuit pilots with good eyes. His memory of the young man still fresh in his spirit and the way he affected the entire battlefield made that fact true.

    Fell saw them in the distance, and he couldn''t help but quicken his step by a few grades. Before long, he crossed the path filled with fierces but constantly trembling beast that didn''t dare to move a single muscle when faced by his presence.

    "This spell is literally a cheat.", he exclaimed nearly out loud. "Nearly a cheat¡­ I can sense that its effect will stop in a few seconds.", he corrected in a low tone before leaving the fray of diverse beasts of many shapes and sizes.

    "Time to get some rest.", he thought while greeting the numerous soldiers in front of him.

    He passed through them, nodding at them on his way. The general of their army wanted to question him and to ask what had happened deep in the beast wave, but he stopped himself and only nodded toward him.

 Chapter 244 - Worlds End Rapsody Part Five

    Fell remembered about the metallic box filled with explosives. He turned around and exclaimed in a loud voice filled with good intentions.

    "Thanks for the help. By the way, they will turn aggressive in a short moment.", he added before disappearing in the distance. The direction of his steps was toward the wall, and before long, he stood in front of the smooth and large construct that protected the city.

    His hand touched the soft and slippery steel and couldn''t help but have a change in his expression. "This can become quite difficult¡­", he thought while trying to use his finger to hold him. But the wall lacked any degree of adherence, and after climbing a few meters high, his figure began sliding down with an acute, grating, noise.

    "Well, this option isn''t very reliable¡­", He looked at his deprived body and couldn''t help but sigh with discontentment. "If only I had a few energy left in this body."

    The state of his body was truly at his lowest, and he didn''t dare to overexert his tired physique. "Wait!?", an idea popped in his mind, and as soon as he thought about it, he couldn''t stop himself from trying it.

    He closed his eyes and made contact with the veined white hole near his head. An influx of ephemeral soul power escaped from his body and coursed through veins toward his arms.

    He extended his hand and focused himself on giving shape to that energy. It took him a few seconds to condense and give shape to the energy, but with the help from the memory of the creature he had gained. His control of soul power rose to another level, and three large tentacles made from soul power were wiggling out of his arms.

    "With this, it should be much easier.", he mumbled with satisfaction as he glanced at the slightly purple-colored tentacles that left his hand. They weren''t yet completely materialized but were condensed enough that they were capable of interacting with objects.

    "Let''s hope they can hold the weight of my body.", he thought before trying once again to climb on the wall. His leg tapped on the ground, and his body was sent upward in an explosive manner.

    He rose dozens of meter high in a split second, and just as his body began losing the last bits of momentum it contained. His soul-powered tentacles moved and grabbed the smooth and steep wall in front of him. They connected without any difficulty with the wall, and a gripping strength once again propelled him upward.

    He repeated the action a few times, and before long, only a few meters separated him from the top portion of the wall. With one last effort, he pushed once again with his tentacle on the steep wall. A gripping strength propelled him past the wall, and he landed with ease on the construct.

    He exhaled a lengthy breath, and he cut the flood of energy that kept the tentacle materialized. The tentacles disappeared in the blink of an eye, leaving only a few glints of purple energy hovering in mid-air.

    Fell turned around and gazed at the battlefield from a distance. And as he predicted, the raging fire of war had once again resumed after his departure. Now that he stood on high ground, he managed to get a decent view of the ongoing battle.

    His eyes darted toward the west field, where he had started fighting. He noticed a few soldiers standing on the wall, and the rest of the beast wave didn''t return, making the west wall quite secure.

    He gazed at the north wall that was the closest to his position and watched the army of MechSuit take down one beast after another. "They won''t face any problem against those weak beasts¡­", he mumbled in a soft tone beginning to walk away.

    "The road to the other walls is quite long¡­", he exclaimed while gazing at the state of his clothes. "I guess that going through the streets of the city in this state isn''t something that should be done¡­", he thought with a wry smile.

    A wave of soul power washed the higher part of the wall. And a pained expression flashed on his face, he sighed and began stepping toward the south wall.

    "Guess walking on the wall is the only way¡­", he thought with a self-deprecating smile. He couldn''t help but have his mind wander while gazing at the long road in front of him.

    At some point, he stopped in his track and decided to change clothes. He took out a large bottle of clean water, and as the higher part of the wall was quite empty. He took off the ragged parts that were left from the martial attire he had been wearing. He nearly burned what was left from his clothes but decided to just stock them in his spatial pocket for now.

    A groan of pleasure escaped his lips when he felt the sensation of the clean, freshwater on his body. He took his time and had to scrap the pieces of blood that had solidified, under those scabs, were a small trace on his skin left from the many injuries he had gotten.

    "Thankfully, my body is quite resilient. If I wasn''t a body cultivator, I would have pretty much died today from all the blood loss.", he exclaimed with a wry smile while rubbing the filth out of his back. The worst was his hair that had turned into an ugly red color due to the blood and dirt that had amassed in it.

    Before long, he managed to clean himself and had donned one of the martial attire he had stocked earlier in his spatial pocket.

    "Now that''s better!", he exclaimed with a satisfying sight. He couldn''t help but stop for a little moment and enjoyed the sensation of the fresh wind brushing against his skin. Before long, he resumed his walk, and although he didn''t eat at all, his footstep quickened as he felt refreshed from the short pause.

    And before long, the space separating him from the south wall was less than a kilometer. From a distance, and due to the angle that the circular-shaped wall gave him, he could see a moving mass of dark that represented the beast wave. And as he approached, he began seeing the raging battle going on in the south wall.

    "I can detect numerous strong blood essence.", he exclaimed with surprise. He accelerated his steps, and soon entered a running stance where he darted toward the south wall. Then, he stopped in an abrupt manner with surprise flashing on his face.

    He tried detecting those blood essence, but it was to no avail as he couldn''t find their signature energy again. "Does it means that someone had taken them in one go?", he mumbled with a pensive expression flashing on his face.

    "Although I wouldn''t be faced with much trouble if I had fought those creatures. The fact that he had taken them in one go in such a lightning-fast mean is a feat that couldn''t be ignored.", before long the mass of creature turned into clearer figures, and he could see them individually from high in the wall.

    He also noticed a few figures standing on the wall, close to the line of cannon that shot rays of light every few seconds. "Seems like the south defenses are faring quite well¡­", he exclaimed with a pleasant surprise.

    From his position, he could feel the masses of energy running through the battlefield with even more clarity. And his vision could now clearly see the figure valiantly defending the walls of New Casablanca.

    "The gladiators!", he exclaimed as he noticed a specific MechSuit moving in a strange way. "I have already seen this style of martial art in the core!", he thought with images of the man appearing in his thought.

    "So, they did come in the end.", he thought with another wave of pleasant surprise that made his heart blissful. "I guess they truly have one word. People like them pay attention to the promise they make."

    From the moment he knew that the gladiator''s had made their way from the Core to the gigantic walls, he began looking for a specific figure among them. He had met the man a few times and had even exchanged a few moves with him. "The disappearance of the bestial blood essence should be caused by him.", he thought with his eyes darting left and right.

    "Found it¡­", he said with a strange smile on his lips. There, in the middle of the battlefield, could be seen a red-haired figure fighting without wearing any MechSuit.

    "Looks like he is quite confident in himself!", he exclaimed as he saw him. "Well¡­ His body is quite resilient on its ow-", he mumbled before stopping in his words. As he gazed at the red-haired man, he noticed a strange oddity happen in the middle of the battlefield.

 Chapter 245 - Battles Tendencies Part One

    Every time a creature was killed by the red-haired man, a strange occurrence would happen near him. The occurrence in question was the complete disappearance of the creature''s blood essence, without leaving any trace around it.

    Normally when one died, the individual''s blood essence would take some time to disappear and could still be sensed by individuals as the blood was still present in the person''s body.

    "Oh, that''s quite interesting¡­", exclaimed Fell while paying attention to the red haired man''s next kill. It didn''t take him long, and soon enough, the red haired man took down another fierce beast.

    As expected, he saw the creature disappear from his senses. Fell continued gazing at the man while pondering on the reason for such strange mysteries, and after a few minutes of patient analysis. He came to two very similar conclusions.

    "Either his treasure is capable of absorbing an enemies'' blood essence, or it is the red haired man itself who is executing a mysterious technique.", He mumbled with glinting lights flaring on the white of his eyes. "Well¡­", he said while raising his shoulder in a brisk manner. "None of those possibilities really surprise me.", he exclaimed before taking his sight away from the man.

    He began walking on the wall while approaching the few figures standing near the numerous ray light canons. He continued looking at the battlefield and before long couldn''t help but let a hearty laugh escape from his throat.

    "With them here, I don''t think the south wall will be in any kind of trouble.", he thought with a beaming smile on his face. He was truly content by the fact that other people from the core had come here to defend the city.

    "I guess a promise is still a promise.", he thought as a satisfied grin flashed on his face.

    The few people afar noticed him due to his eccentric laughter, and couldn''t help but throw the young man a strange look. But they soon ignored him and continued monitoring the ongoing battle. They only turned toward him when they heard their footstep approach his position.

    "Hello.", they heard the youth greet them and couldn''t help but return the greeting. He walked past them, and they soon ignored him despite the strangeness of his actions.

    They knew that a bunch of eccentric existed among the cultivators, thus didn''t pain much attention to the youth. They saw from his martial attire, and with their seasoned eyes, they saw through part of his military strength.

    "This young man is strong!", thought an old man standing among them. His eyes squinted into slits, but he still acted as if he saw nothing and only nodded toward the youth in an amicable manner.

    Fall walked past them in an unhurried manner. As soon as he greeted them, he ignored them as his sight was locked on the beast wave in front of him. And in particular, he noticed a few friendly heads he had seen before, some from the assault team, while others came straight from the core.

    "It might truly become a possibility¡­", he thought as he saw the main district and the core work hand in hand to defend the south wall. There were numerous beasts here compared to the two other walls, but Fell didn''t feel a beast of the level of the humongous spider creature.

    "Although, even if one came to existence, he should be capable enough to deal with it on his own.", one last thought about the red haired man passed through his mind. His steps took him further away from the south wall, and he continued advancing through the road in front of him.

    Before long, the sounds of the battle turned distant before disappearing and left place to complete silence.

    His steps reverberated with the chilling windy breeze and his thought constantly flowed in his mind in a constant stream. The experience of this day had left him confident in the future defenses, but he still felt that something was off and that nothing much had been shown from the other side.

    Except for a few beasts that had evolved enough time to turn into a threat, the rest were ravenous cannon fodder that could be easily taken down with a few bullets. For the otherworldly guest that had told him about the beast wave in a scared manner, he couldn''t help but feel that the worst was yet to come.

    "And there are still those unknown bombs¡­", thought the young cultivator between two steps.

    His walk continued in silence, and time ticked at the same time as his thought flowed through his mind. The complete silence surrounding him eased his senses that had been assaulted ever since the day started. After muddling over the many things that might happen over the battle, he decided to enjoy the silence for the next few minutes simply.

    The terrain and many biome existents near the city entered his sight. Rocky fields that were void of any plan, surrounded by numerous small mountains and valley. At some point, the terrain changed, and a surreal meadow appeared in the middle of the deserted area. The young cultivator couldn''t help but stop in his track and gazed for a minute at the strange oddity.

    "I can''t feel any soul power, heaven and earth energy, or even blood essence near that grassland¡­", he thought before concluding in a low mumble. "I haven''t even left the city, and I''m already meeting strange oddity in nature¡­", the young cultivator didn''t know that a few centuries ago, the face of the earth had changed after facing a massive upheaval.

    Ever since that time, the Earth had been scarred in atrocious ways that had taken many hundreds of years to heal. Those dark times had happened before the era where the many cities were governed by corporates and had turned into sovereign city-state that governed themselves.

    No one knew if the cause of that was due to the disappearance of the nation behind those cities, or if it was simply a massive revolution caused by the calamity that had caused shambles on the surface of the earth.

    New Casablanca was one of such city-state that had been governing itself for many centuries. Its habitant only thought of themselves as natives of the cities, and had since long thrown the lineage of their nation. Fell wasn''t aware of those things, but that didn''t mean that those events didn''t shift the destiny of the young man.

    Without the city turning into a sovereign city state that self governed itself, the core would have never appeared, and the baby cemetery would have never appeared on the face of the city. One couldn''t truly know if the self governing attitude of those cities was a good thing or not, but what was sure was that this reality was the same everywhere in Earth.

    A planet with vast lineage and ancestry, but that was in a terrible shape due to the many past mistakes. Those were the thought coming from the many civilizations that had received information about Fell''s planet. A lot of wasted potential that would sadly never be recovered.

    Fell walked for thirty minutes before arriving near the outpost on the east wall. The vast battlefield once again entered his field of view, and he once again was pleasantly surprised to notice how well this outpost was faring.

    They were holding the wall with such a firm grasp that most of their soldiers were shooting from the height of the wall. The reason of that was simple and laid on the numerous androids fighting among the mass of beasts. They fought using human martial art and the numerous weapon and blades they were equipped with.

    The AI controlling them ordered a common battle plan, and the battlefield had turned into giant chess game where the android and the MechSuit formed New Casablanca''s pawn.

    And as the android''s lives had been deemed less valuable than the true-blooded human, a sad choice had to be orchestrated, and the android was chosen as the solely grounded soldiers. Every dozen of seconds, one wave of flying MechSuit would plunge on the battlefield. They streaked through the air, and a sea of bullets would rain on the beast army that could only try and bite the metallic limbs of the many androids.

    But even that was hard work in itself as they had been cast in reinforced steel plates. Their defenses could even be deemed slightly superior to a MechSuit as a lot less work needed to be done for a pilot''s comfort. In the case when an android would be too damaged, then a countdown would be started by the AI, and a massive explosion would arise from the energy core of the metallic automated creature.

    "What a refine battle plan!?", thought Fell out loud. He approached the position filled with numerous cannon, and only stopped when he noticed dozens of soldier wearing MechSuit jump out of the wall.

 Chapter 246 - Battle Tendencies Part Two

    As he approached, he recognized the blood essence signature of a few MechSuit pilots. A smile appeared on his face, and he glanced at the flying MechSuit with relief. The pilots in question were part of the police assault team, and he noticed an aged yet strong blood essence that was identical to Walter''s own blood signature.

    Fell''s eye darted toward the figure flying over the battlefield and recognized the black colored MechSuit of the police officer. His eyes opened widely when he noticed two golden-colored MechSuit flyings near him.

    "Johnny came here¡­ And that''s the old general!", he exclaimed in a soft tone before gazing at the rest of the army. Before long, he came to a simple conclusion that every single wall was defended in a different manner. But that each wall had in the end managed to excel in their defenses.

    The north wall, in particular, had managed to chase away the beast wave, and although part of the fierce beast had managed to relocate toward other areas. The same could also be said for the soldiers that had defended the west wall.

    Fell and Johnny were a perfect example of this, as they had shown an impeccable effect on the north and east wall that had been lacking a few troupes.

    "They seemed to be well organized.", he surprisingly thought while approaching the place where the line of MechSuit stood before jumping. Among a group of silver-lined MechSuit stood one particular one, and it didn''t take much for Fell to recognize it as being Jamie''s MechSuit.

    "Looks like you survived!", exclaimed the youth with enthusiasm. His voice might have been low, but it reverberated through the entirety of the wall and happened to be heard by all. His sentence might have been simple, but it echoed with the thoughts of the soldiers as the whole day had been spent in a deadly and dangerous battlefield.

    With most of them fighting their first battle, they couldn''t help but feel troubled by the entire experience. But the thoughts of protecting their city where their own families lived pushed them through their limits and gave them a reason to fight to the bitter end. Their minds were the only scarred thing, and their MechSuit were signs that losses couldn''t be avoided, and many of the MechSuit were rigged with marks of claws.

    A few were damaged to the point where the MechSuit lacked a leg or a piece of armor in the trunk. But they still stood in the line, ready to once again fly through the battlefield to take down a few beasts.

    Facts were although this wall seemed to possess the best defenses. A common decision had been taken among the higher-ups that aided with the automaton and the police forces. A majority of the soldier of the east defense would be enrolled among the citizens that wanted to fight.

    As MechSuits weren''t really a lacking resource in the city. Anyone could take the decision to protect the city where he lived, as even the most common salesman had decided to partake in his duty.

    Even with all of it''s flaws, and all the schism and sections that existed among the citizen of the city. Everything disappeared when they were faced against one common threat, regrouping under one flag that united each human being of New Casablanca.

    A few saw their friend die today, but they still swallowed their bitterness and clenched their weapons tighter in their hands before standing on the line. Their internal turmoils could be easily seen in their eyes, and it was only due to the adrenaline released from their bodies that they managed to keep pushing through.

    A change happened in them as Fell''s word passed through their ears, and their expression eased up considerably from the remark.

    "I lived through those horrifying hours¡­", thought one of the troubled soldiers. "I''m not dying today!", determination flashed on his face as he exhaled every speck of air he had in his lungs. Fell''s word resonated with his muddled mind and his courage cleared up the rest of his thought.

    "Looks like it had quite an effect on them.", thought Fell while looking at the freshly recruited soldiers in front of him. He hadn''t been sure of the exact effect of soul technique he had used to influence the soldiers, but he knew that the effect couldn''t be bad. He remembered the absurd effect the spider had on the other beast and thought that he might be capable of doing something similar.

    As he had already seen the effect, his soul had on the savage beast. He knew that he could at least influence the earthling in positives ways. What he was dubious on was to what extent the technique would influence them, but the result was immediately felt by Fell, and a satisfied smile flashed on the face as Jamie turned toward him.

    "Fell!", he said with a smile before noticing the changes that happened to the youth''s physique. "Looks like you paid quite the high price¡­", he added with a wry smile flashing on his lips.

    Fell opened his mouth and a dry chuckle escaped from it before he exclaimed in a matter of fact tone, "You lose some, you win some. It''s all a matter of sacrifices, my friend.".

    A burst of laughter escaped from Jamie''s throat, but it soon died out as he saw that there was a shift that was happening near the jumping areas. "Got to go do my job. Go take some rest, and leave this for us!", he added while flashing a thumb up toward the young cultivation.

    He then donned his helmet and ran toward the jumping area with heavy steps before readying himself. It took a few seconds for the area to fill, and a decent-sized garrison of MechSuit jumped out of the wall and flew toward the battlefield in a straight and forward manner.

    Fell saw the scene unravel many time in front of his eyes, and after dozens of minute passed. He decided to go rest on the wall, he walked away from the lines of MechSuit and sat in a place close to the numerous cannons. He soon closed his eyes, and washed away the sound from the cannon beam close to him.

    Before long, he reappeared inside of his soul palace and inhabited his ego body. At the next moment, he made contact with his spatial pocket and summoned the strange rock to appear in front of his body. His physical body''s hands moved and made contact with the purple stone that laid quietly in the middles of his palms.

    "Release.", a silent mumble escaped from his lips. "With this much soul energy, to which level will my soul palace and ego body develop to.", he thought before the pore of his hand opened and subtle yet constant stream of purple wisps entered inside of his body.

    Even since the veined white-colored hole appeared in his body, his soul cultivation had firmly stood half a step inside of the next realm of the soul path. The information about it was vague in the cultivation technique given by Anzar, but it still gave him the very basis of the soul path''s second realm.

    Will Awakening, or the development of his soul palace and ego body. Not a lot of information was given by his cultivation method, but he was aware that this was the real first step of soul cultivation. This was where a soul cultivator''s true strength appear in grand sight, the same could be said for his other cultivation paths, but for soul cultivation, this step was even more important due to the existence of the ego body.

    The ego body was to his own will, what Little Gold was to his heaven and earth energy. A condensation of his own persona, before attaining the second step was a clear sign of the strength of his soul. He didn''t know if a major change would happen when he would break through to the second step, but he was still interested in doing so.

    Any advance in his strength, even the most minute, was equivalent to raising the success of their fight against the beasts.

    The clear stream of purple cloud made its way toward his soul palace, and before long, Fell focused on absorbing and refining the constant stream of energy coming from the stone. A few minutes later, he saw his progress with the decent expansion that happened to his soul palace.

    "I can feel the thin line separating me from the second step.", he thought with a deep light shining in the eyes of his ego body. "The soul palace is the foundation of my soul cultivation. In my current state, I can only guess that my soul palace''s size is still lacking compared to a true second step soul cultivator..."

    "But what I lacked can be filled with the power existing in this stone!", he clenched his fist around the stone in a tighter grasp.

 Chapter 247 - Battle Tendencies Part Three

    Soul energy filled his body and was completely absorbed by the veined white-colored time in no amount of time. Those purple wisp of soul-based resources began forming a small pool of hazy wisp around Fell''s ego body.

    His ego body absorbed the nutritious purple haze surrounding, every inch and parcel of his persona was surrounded by the pool of purple haze. And before long, his body completely disappeared in the mass of purple that soon began filling a decent corner of his soul palace. His mind was constantly being assaulted by waves upon waves of soul attack coming from the resentment existing in the rock.

    But Fell had since long got used to those sparks of reminiscence from the creature that was accompanied by flashes of memories of its life.

    "Uh?", his mouth opened wide in surprise. "I can feel that the expansion of my soul palace had stopped¡­", he thought while gazing in the distance through the purple haze hovering around him. His sight pierced through the distance, and he saw that his soul palace had grown twice its past size in a short amount of time.

    "And here I thought my problem was with the soul palace¡­", he exclaimed in a low tone. "Then¡­ What am lacking to attain the second realm?", he mumbled in confusion.

    He stood in place for a few seconds, not absorbing any wisp of purple cloud on his own and left his ego body passively absorb smalls amount of the special substance. His thought revolved about finding a way to breakthrough the thin veil blocking him from truly becoming a second realm soul cultivator.

    "I''ll use the energy to condense and augment the purity of my soul palace!", he thought as he resumed the speedy absorption. And before long, he found the answer of his new thesis. At first, there weren''t many changes, but after dozens of minutes passed, minutes but noticeable change happened to his soul palace.

    The soul palace whole construct turned slightly more material and corporeal. The same was also true for Fell''s ego body whose features had turned clearer and more defined.

    And as he continued absorbing the soul-based resource existing inside of the rock, the changes rose to a tremendous degree. A sharp aura appeared around the ego body, and now large chunks of the purple cloud made its way toward it. The stronger his soul palace became, the faster he absorbed the pool of purple energy.

    "I can sense my senses turned sharper and sharper¡­", he thought as memories he had since long forgotten resurfaced. A mixed expression appeared on his face, and he even seemed to be fighting something that had clunked deeply to his soul, hidden deeply in the ugliest facets of his personality.

    "Not the best memories¡­", he said with a bitter smile. "But those are still worth remembering as everything can become my source of growth!", he exclaimed loudly with his voice appearing from every parcel of his immaculate purple soul palace.

    With a large amount of energy he had absorbed, his original white-colored soul palace had permanently acquired a purple hue that tinged the surface of his soul palace.

    Even when he checked the inside of his body using his senses, he was surprised to notice a veined purple-colored hole existing near his head. "I guess I might have absorbed too much soul power from the creature¡­", he said with a bitter smile. "Well¡­ can''t really help it, and I don''t feel any side effect¡­", he added before focusing back on absorbing even more energy.

    The way he handled the purple haze also changed with the time spent refining it, and now his sharp sword intent helped him in dealing with the ominous resentment present in it.

    A sharp glint was reflected from the surface of his now slightly purple ego body, and before long, that glint had traveled from his body to the whole pool surrounding.

    "With this, It''ll go even faster!", he thought before raising his absorption rate to the limit. "I''ll squeeze every bit of strength you have to offer!", he thought while clenching the hands of his physical body even tighter around the strange rock.

    Time ticked quietly, and the action on the battlefield didn''t stop for a single moment. And the constant influx of MechSuit flying through the sky didn''t stop for a single second; constant streams of MechSuit with engines roaring to the heaven fought with their lives on the lines.

    Their engine roared, and a sea of bullets and beam of light would fall unto the sea of beasts. On the soil, that had since long turned into an ominous red and gray color coming from the corpses of the fierce beasts and the carcasses from the automatons; automatons who managed to single-handedly hold the massive wave from ever attaining the steep walls.

    Fell wasn''t exactly oblivious to those events, but he could senses that no major event happened while he cultivated. He always had a habit of keeping a small part of his senses focused on what was surrounding him, but now, with the recent upgrade of his soul path, his senses had turned far sharper and clearer.

    Techniques that had forced him to use the hyperfocused state could now be executed without any difficulty. And even in the midst of cultivating, he could turn on his blood perception and gaze at the battlefield that would be turned into a canvas filled with red dots of many nuance and hues.

    The battlefield turned into a standstill, with the human side controlling the massive beast tide without any major difficulty. And before long, Fell ignored whatever was happening there and focused on what was happening to his soul palace.

    "Looks like this is the maximum I can do when it comes to condensing my soul palace¡­", he exclaimed with a soft sight. "What am I going to do with this much leftover energy?", he thought with a depressed inner voice.

    His head dropped low for a few second before he sharply moved his head left and right to brush away the negative thoughts. And the next moment, an incredible rate of absorption appeared in the form of a vortex around his ego body.

    The purple-colored stone in his hand trembled for a second. Cracks appeared on its rough surface, and the next moment it crumbled into dusty particles that whiffed away from Fell''s figure before disappearing away with the wind.

    Inside of the young cultivator''s body, a massive amount of soul energy was making its way toward the purple-colored hole that represented his soul palace. Every parcel of his soul palace turned purple as a cloudy haze billowed through the vast space where his consciousness laid.

    "I don''t care about the repercussions!", he exclaimed through gritted teeth as he felt a bloating sensation from his soul. As if at any second passing, an explosion could arise inside of his sea of consciousness.

    "Stronger! Stronger! Stronger! I need to turn stronger!", he roared as his soul palace trembled. Incessant shaking happened everywhere inside of his soul palace, and the next moment a humongous vortex appeared on the surface of his ego body. In a split second, every single wisp of purple haze that existed in his soul palace had been cleanly absorbed by his ego body.

    Ticket ticked with Fell consolidating his cultivation base, and before long, he opened his eyes, and the mass of beast appeared in front of his eyes.

    "Sadly, I still didn''t manage to break through¡­", he thought while getting up from his sitting position. A wave of surprise flashed on his face, washing away the negative thoughts.

    "They are retreating¡­", he mumbled as his expression dropped. "The city survived the first day.", he added before shutting his lips.

    Fell glanced at the retreating figures in the distance, and couldn''t help but feel a blissful sensation arise from his heart. "We did it, the city has survived the first confrontation with the beast wave.", he said while glancing at what was left from the sun in the distance.

    The mass of beast could be seen receding away, clouds of dust billowed in a vague haze under the warm light from the sunset.

    But his thoughts were still shaken as the possibility of a night attack haunted his spirit. At night, it was a given that the soldier''s mind would be shaken by fatigue, and Fell wouldn''t bet on the endurance of the freshly enrolled soldier''s. A MechSuit might help with the physical work, but the constant hours of fighting had already begun corroding the mind of the soldiers.

    He couldn''t help but sigh and hope that the stars were with them and that whatever was forcing the beast to attack couldn''t work at night. But, deep down, part of him knew that the chances for those hopes to become a reality were too low.

    He couldn''t help but feel that the city''s trouble was only starting, and he feared that with every passing day, the cruelty and viciousness of the beasts would rise.

 Chapter 248 - Battle Tendencies Part Four

    Fell stood on the wall for the next few hours that passed, he regulated his breathing and continued further refining the enormous soul power he had absorbed.

    He couldn''t help but feel bloated from the sudden increase of power, and as he didn''t know how things would go far for New Casablanca. He preferred staying here, cultivating and guarding the city at the same time.

    "Man¡­ I''m so hungry¡­", mumbled the young cultivator with a gurgling stomach that didn''t betray his honesty. "I''ve picked up a few nutritious looking beasts earlier, eating them would definitely relieve me from this grating sensations.", he exclaimed in a low tone-his hand rubbed his sore stomach-while pondering on whether he should distance himself from the mass of soldiers or simply do the deeds here.

    But, just as he was lost in his thoughts, hesitation whether he should stay near the east wall or make himself a cozy place further away. He heard a deep and powerful sound reverberate through the wall. His eyebrows rose slightly as he felt that the voice was transmitted with a strange technique or technology.

    "The battle has ended with us securing the defenses of our city."

    "We shall stand tall for the feat we have accomplished together.", then the voice''s tone changed slightly and became much more solemn. "And together, we will weep and cry our closed one that we lost today."

    A lengthy minute of silence took over the entirety of the wall of New Casablanca. Be it the north, south, or west wall, and everyone had stood solemnly while thinking about what had happened in a single day. A few had turned from freshly recruited soldiers into battle heartened warriors who wouldn''t shiver while facing the blood lust emanated from the fierce beasts.

    "Forever remembered!", the solemness in the voice caused once again a reaction through everyone. And with an action similar to a sporadic beehive, the sentence left the lips from every single individual standing on top of the wall.

    Even Fell couldn''t help but sigh a silent exhale before mumbling under his breath. "Forever remembered¡­", he stood up from his lotus position and began moving away from the mass of soldiers.

    Just as he arrived at a position forty meter away from the mass of soldier, he heard another wave of voices spread behind him. He turned around and glanced at the mass of individuals, and understood that they were allocating the soldiers inhabitations that existed inside of the massive large wall.

    "I guess I''ll stay here. The fresh breeze will always be better than the claustrophobic feeling that might arise from those habitations¡­", he added before leaving the east defenses.

    He made his way toward the north wall and soon enough found out that the individual had already disappeared in the places where they have been allocated. Only a few figures could be seen doing some repair work on the MechSuits and the ray cannons; they bowed deeply toward Fell''s figure before focusing on their own matter.

    He continued on his track and ignored the moving time while advancing down the path in front of him. The scenery to his right changed continuously as the complete size of New Casablanca formed a humongous circle containing the central district and the Core.

    "Here will do just good.", exclaimed Fell as he arrived in a spot between the west wall and the south wall. The top of the wall was slightly thicker than the other parts and was large enough for the massive garrison of soldiers to stand in line on them.

    He sat in a random place and began taking out one cooking utensil after another from his spatial pocket. Before long, he finished preparing himself a decent cooking table with a steel plate he had in a corner of his spatial pocket.

    The next moment, a dead creature appeared in front of him. The fierce beast was a mutated sheep that had been part of the beast wave attacking the north wall. It didn''t take him long before he focused on the work in front of him, and he soon took a well-sharpened knife and began taking the skin out of the animal.

    It took him a few minutes to skin the dead animal. He placed the carcass on her back and began made a few cuts near the hooves and genitals. He then split its throat open and began emptying the body from every speck of blood it contained. He didn''t find it useful to take away the head, but nonetheless still did as he wasn''t very experienced with preparing meat from a carcass.

    It took him a few tests and trials, but even if he saw a sheep similar to the one in front of him. He still followed the same technique he saw a butcher execute in the Core, and managed to take care of the mutated sheep''s meat steadily.

    He took out the internal organs and also decided to cook a few of them. Particularly the liver, one of Fell''s favorite type of meat.

    Before long, a rosy looking tender meat appeared in front of his sight. Saliva accumulated near his lips, and he focused himself on the work at hand to forget about the feeling of hunger.

    Usually, ever since he became a cultivator, eating and sleeping had become options that he could choose not to take. But, after the enormous energy consumption, he had gone through during the day-especially the consumption of his bodily''s resource to unleash those deadly blow on the humongous spider- he felt as if he couldn''t contain himself anymore.

    "How intelligent I was for thinking about grabbing a few intact beasts.", he exclaimed with a smile before taking out a bowl from his spatial pocket. He filled it with spices and added oils to it before cutting a few pieces of meat from the skinned mutated sheep.

    Even after the mutation, the beast''s meat didn''t turn rough and hard but was quite the contrary. It glinted under the soft light from the moon, and one look at it was enough to know that the creature was ultimately an herbivore.

    "I remember hearing something about herbivore''s tasting better than carnivorous beasts¡­", he mumbled while dipping the meat on the bowl he had prepared. He put the meat in the side, leaving it to marinade quietly at the sides, and the next moment he disappeared from the top of the wall.

    He reappeared outside of the city, near a small patch of trees that formed a small and clear path. Without using his sword, he cut a few branch, and retraced his steps back toward the wall.

    With his recent upgrade of his soul cultivation, he materialized two tentacles that helped in his ascension and before long he was back in the upper part of the wall.

    He whistled cheerfully while thinking about the tasty meal he was going to enjoy. And as he was making his way toward the place he had picked, a thought traversed his mind. A thought related to the many times he had cooked and shared his meal with one of the friends he had made in the central district.

    In the middle of the night, as he was preparing food, he couldn''t help but remember the cheeky Wind. "I hope that bastard listened to my advice.", he mumbled before washing those thoughts out of his spirit. He took out the pieces of wood he had taken, and used his lightning based energy to fire a spark on them.

    Before long, a small yet steady fire was lighted on top of the wall, and the next moment a pan filled with oil was put on top of it.

    "I can''t wait any longer!", Fell mumbled with red eyes as he watched the oil''s temperature rise without leaving the pan from his sight.

    A few minutes passed, and the long waiting was briskly cut with the sounds of meat hitting the pan''s surface. Droplets of hot oil jumped out of the pan, a few of them fell on the young cultivator. But he ignored them as he truly didn''t even feel them due to his advance bodily cultivation.

    Before long, fumes made their way out of his position, and strong odor appeared in the top of the wall. His cooking skills might not be on par with the well-known chefs from the main district, but his enthusiasm and exceptional senses made it that he rarely failed in his cooking session.

    "I''m digging in!", he exclaimed while grabbing the cooked piece of meat with his fingers.

    The temperature was high enough to cause mild trauma to a mortal''s skin, but Fell was far from being a mortal. And the meager temperature only hasted his movement as he threw the hot meat in his lips.

    "Ouh!", a groan of pain escaped from his lips. "Hot!?", before it soon died down. It was washed away by groans of pleasure awoken by the contact of the sheep''s meat with his tastebuds.

    £¬

 Chapter 249 - Battle Tendencies Part Five

    Fell then went on a meat rampage, and before long, finished cooking the entire meat pieces he had cut from the mutated sheep. Obviously, he ate part of it while cooking it and when the last bit of meat began sizzling on the burning hot pan. He had already eaten more than twenty percent of the mutated sheep.

    "Looks like you''re having quite the feast by yourself!", a rough voice resounded from behind him.

    Without turning around, he could feel the potent blood essence from the man behind him. The only person who had developed his body to this state was the red haired man he had met in the Core.

    "You also seemed to have enjoyed the feast today.", responded Fell with mysterious insinuations that the red haired man caught upon without difficulty. Fell was referring to the treasure capable of absorbing the blood essence from the beasts.

    The red haired man resumed his steps, and his face showed the surprise he was feeling inward due to what Fell had said. "You mind If I join you?", he asked before sitting in front of him.

    "Feel free to make yourself at home", responded the young cultivator before raising his head. He noticed that the red haired man was already sitting on the ground, and he hadn''t really waited for his invitation.

    He focused silently on the last piece of meat in front of him. And left the red haired man to himself for a few minutes, time ticked and it was only when he took out the well cooked meat from the pan did he turn his face toward him. "I saw you guys on the south battlefield.", he briskly spoked. He paused for a second before continuing.

    "The gladiators were having quite the fun while wearing MechSuits.", he said with a wry smile on his face.

    The red haired man looked deeply into the youth''s eyes before responding, with a smile flashing on his face. "Yeah! Who would have thought that those muscles heads would enjoy using technology.", he exclaimed succinctly as a burst of laughter roared out of his throat.

    Silence then permeated the surrounded of the two individuals, and before long, it was broken by Fell, who had finished taking out two plates from his spatial pocket. He gave one to the red haired man as he didn''t feel like eating alone. Like they say a meal always better when eaten with people.

    "Meat is from a fierce beast that looked quite appetizing.", said Fell in a matter of fact tone. His words didn''t surprise the red haired man as he was quite used to living outside of the city.

    "By the way¡­", said Fell after taking a bite of a liver piece he had prepared earlier. The juicy sauce he had prepared splashed inside of his mouth as the meat released every wisp of liquid it contained. "What''s your name?"

    The red haired man finished swallowing the mouthful he had thrown in his mouth before responding. "Akainmhar.", he replied in a strange accent. "Got any liquor on ya?", he added before taking another gigantic bite on the meat at hand.

    Fell wasn''t surprised by the strange name as the citizen from New Casablanca had originated from a massive ethnic fusion that slowly happened over centuries. With a movement of his hand, two bottle of hard liquor appeared in front of him and another snap of his hand remove their caps.

    The next few minutes passed quietly, with both men enjoying the tender meat accompanied with the hard liquor that soothed their throat. They exchanged small talk between each bite and came to know each other for the first.

    Fell learned that Akainhmar wasn''t a native from the city and that he had traveled since his youth everywhere on the continent of Afurhirk. His body cultivation had been acquired through his many travels, and New Casablanca had been one of the largest city state existing in the north of the continent.

    "What are your thoughts on today''s battle?", asked Fell in a succinct manner. Redirecting the dialog on the subject that was grating his mind the most.

    "Decent¡­", mumbled Akainmhar in a low tone. "Most fierce beasts among the beast wave are at most low tier beast that is slightly more dangerous than non evolved beasts."

    "Technically speaking, in a one on one situation, any MechSuit pilot could take one without much difficulty.", he added before falling in deep thought.

    "Yet I feel that the retreat that happened at night fall was too precise¡­", he added before leaving the rest to Fell''s own interpretation.

    The young cultivator''s eyes glowed in a mysterious way. His mind worked at lightning speed, and flashes of fresh memory resurfaced in his mind. The appearance of the beast wave at dawn, and its disappearance right at sunset had made it too precise for it just to be a coincidence.

    Fell thought for an extended period of time before breaking the silence that had permeated the spot where they sat on the wall. "I can''t agree more with you¡­ Do you think whatever they are using to control the beasts need sun light for it to work?"

    "Might be the case¡­", retorted the red haired man before adding. "But It might also be a bait that is aiming to attack us at a time where our defenses would end up being the laxest. And that is vowed to happen at night."

    Fell had also thought the same thing, and had been fearing that everything was just a bait. A reset of the fight that aimed at wasting New Casablanca''s mental.

    In front of them, oiled empty plates sat in front of their leg as they had since long finished the sheep meat that Fell prepared.

    Akainmhar grabbed the bottle of liquor in front of him, and lifted its bottom high toward the sky before emptying every speck of the rough liquid down his throat. He then got up from his sitting position while patting his stomach in satisfaction.

    He gazed at the distance, and before long, turned toward Fell and pointed toward the vast terrains that surrounded the city. "Want to go check what those fuckers are doing?", he asked with a sly smile on his face.

    A strange chuckle escaped from Fell''s lips, and he followed suit and rose to his feet in an instant. "You can sense them from here?", he asked in surprise.

    "Yeah."

    His answer shocked Fell slightly, but he was aware that the red haired man had a blood related treasure in his hands. He stepped toward the side of the wall, and before long, gazed at the direction pointed by the red haired man.

    "A little bit of exercise after eating is said to be quite good for health.", mumbled Fell with sharp light glinting in his eyes. "I''m in", he added before his face toward the red haired man who was already in the midst of jumping out of the wall.

    He raised his arms in a broad manner and threw himself in the void existing outside of the city. It didn''t take long for Fell to follow suit, and he also jumped from the top part of the wall after recovering the utensils he had used to cook his meal.

    The soft breeze turned into sharps knives that poked at his skin, and he sped through the air and fell toward the ground. Two small thuds resounded, and in the next moment, billows of cloud dust rose in the place where they stood.

    A few minutes passed, and the pair had already left the extremities of the city. "I guess that this does count as my time adventuring out of the city¡­ Today''s battle doesn''t really count as a true adventure¡­", he pondered on useless matters as usual. His sight was plastered on the soft moon''s figure hanging in the black shade of the sky.

    Due to their fast speed, it took them approximately twenty minutes to arrive at the beast''s location by following Akainmhar''s blood treasure. Their surroundings had changed from small open meadow patches to a luxuriant forest that seemed to have grown out of nowhere.

    During their way, Fell noticed several marks on the ground and trees that clearly showed the passage of the beast wave. Thousands of fierce creatures couldn''t move without leaving traces, and their tracks were left to the open.

    The pair left the forest and now stood on top of a strange crooked valley that gave sight to a magnificent chain of mountains that rose from the ground and extended toward the firmament.

    "They are hidden among those mountains¡­", exclaimed the red haired man as he turned his face toward Fell.

    "What are we waiting then?", he said with a vicious smile while stepping forward. "I guess it''s our turn to attack their turfs.", he jokingly added before darting forward. At this distance, he picked up a few blood essence signals from the chain of mountains in front of him.

 Chapter 250 - Cardinal Ghost Part One

    "Wait!", exclaimed the red haired man in a low tone. "I can feel tumult in the blood essence of the many beasts¡­ Something is happening there, and it ain''t anything pretty!", he exclaimed while hissing a sharp breath of air.

    Fell noticed Akainmhar''s face turning slightly paler, and Fell wasn''t aware if it was due to the moonlight turning his skin lighter or if it was related to what he had just said.

    "Hmm¡­ Still, we can''t turn back and get back to the city without taking at least a few lives among their ranks.", exclaimed Fell with his sight locked on the red haired man''s eyes. His persistent gaze managed to minute changes in the man''s expression, but he faked and acted as if he noticed nothing.

    "Let''s go!", he briskly spoke and began advancing toward the chains of mountains with steady steps. "Even if it''s dangerous, any potential information can become useful on the battlefield."

    The red haired man stopped for a second and advanced while muttering in a low bark. "Don''t think that I''m afraid.", he hummed with a menacing tone before following Fell''s footsteps.

    They both advanced in cautious steps as the more they approached, the stronger the blood essences turmoil would turn in their sensation. At some point, Fell stopped in his track, his hand moved to the left side of his chest, and a pained groan escaped from his lips.

    "My blood is boiling in my veins!", he said through gritted teeth before turning his head with difficulty toward the red haired man. What he saw caused his eyes to open widely-red flamboyant hair covered half of the face of a trembling Akainmhar- and immediately understood that he wasn''t the only one to have been attacked by the strange feeling.

    It arose inside Fell''s heart, burning him with a dark and horrifying sensation. One that echoed in his head with an ugly whisper that blanked his senses.

    Fell tried fighting the strange sensation, and Akainmhar was in the same situation with bulging veins that squirmed on his face. A face that soon turned a dark crimson colored shade.

    With a back drenched in sweat. Fell stepped forward, and the sensation intension causing killing intent to bloom in his heart ferociously. "There is a poisonous aura here!?", managed to say Fell between gritted teeth that nearly cracked from the amount of strength he put in his jaw.

    "If we don''t kill something soon, am afraid we will soon begin killing each other in less than a few more minute."

    Fell nodded in a slightly coherent manner and broke his sight from the red haired man. He stepped twice in a single time, felt the increase in his killing intent, his movement paused for a split second before he darted in a run.

    His rough breath soon turned into a savage growl that made the air surrounding his crackle. "This thing works on anyone with blood essence¡­ This poison is equivalent to the bane of beasts or body cultivator!"

    "Wait! body cultivator?", he thought while keeping up with the red haired man''s savage dash. He gazed at the mountain for a second-his vision shaded with a vivid red- and a horrifying premonition arose in his heart. "What the hell are they doing there!?", he thought as he felt that the matter wasn''t too simple.

    For such a deadly poisonous aura to exist in this place, it couldn''t be a coincidence. If this vast killing intent was released from the beast on the battlefield, he wouldn''t be surprised for the walls surrounding the city-state to fall in less than an hour.

    "First, I can''t continue like this!", he thought as he tried to clear his mind, but it was to no avail. "Fuck it, I''ll try and use my soul power to ease up my mind", but it came to a sad failure as his killing intent overpowered his mind and made him incapable of using his soul cultivation base.

    "Fuck!", he growled as his body disappeared. The more they ascended the small rocky fields that separated them from the chain of mountain, the more their figures were separated by a larger distance. In an unconscious act from their bodies, the two cultivators darted toward different ways as they sought prey to dissolve their ominous intentions.

    Before long, Fell''s figure approached the bottom of the mountain. Several paths opened up in front of him- valleys that gave off deadly vibes and would brush off any mortal- but Fell decided to ignore those paths, and he decided to climb the rock wall on his right to attain the peak faster.

    His figure turned a ghostly image, and the ground under legs as his figure reappeared in front of the wall. He squatted deeply, and his movement paused for a small frame of time, then it was as if his body was shot through a cannon.

    His body shifted from a stationary phase to a high speeding phase in one split second- the killing intent in him added explosiveness to his movement- and before long, he disappeared from the rocky field. Akainmhar entered one of the paths in the entrance of the valley, and before long, disappeared in the distance. Howls of a ghastly beast that resembled screams and wails of horrors resounded from the path he had taken.

    In front of Fell, the surface of the rocky wall changed in a high speeding fashion, and the moment he felt his ascension slow down. He kicked on the rocky surface and began climbing through the rough terrain with ease. His figure moved with grace akin to a monkey, but every place his body would make contact with would turn into small powder the next moment.

    Aided with his massive speed, his figure soon attained the top part of the surface he was climbing, and his nose twitched as a vast open terrain unraveled in front of his eyes. A horrid smell assaulted his nose, and his eyes caught sign of a humongous twitching figure that laid in front of him.

    His eyes turned into small slits, and the next moment, numerous smaller figures appeared around the humongous twitching figure. "A carcass?!", he mumbled as he felt his body move toward the massive corpse.

    As he approached it, he notices two things that horrified him. First was the fact that the carcass was the size of the titanic snake he had fought. The second was that it was currently being eaten by more than dozens of beasts that reeled and groaned in pleasure.

    "What the hell is going on?", he thought as his body turned into a blurry figure. "How the hell did such a fierce creature get killed by those weaklings?!", he asked himself as he felt his killing intent override his thought. He felt his vision narrow, and an odd sensation of depersonalization took over him.

    Then he saw through his distant eyes a macabre bloodbath that was perpetrated by his own hands. He couldn''t help but try and fight back, but as soon as his body spilled blood, he felt as if he was injected with a humongous dose of adrenaline.

    His blood thumped in a strong pump- echoing deep in his thought- and he felt the blood in his vein acquire the strength of ten thousand horses. The scene happened in the blink of an eye, but as it was done by his own body, he felt forced to watch his own body fall in depravity.

    Thankfully, the next moment he regained consciousness. He found himself looking at the pool of blood on the ground, a horse and rough cough escaped from a sore throat. He hissed a sharp breath, and the next moment his nose twitched, and he felt the hair on his body rise in alarm.

    He executed a somersault despite the intense dizziness he was feeling- in the middle of the pirouette, he saw the danger he had felt - and managed to evade the hidden attack. Dressed with moonlight''s gown, a nightmarish looking creature entered Fell''s sight and caused a chill to run down his spine.

    He quickly recovered his balance and landed on the ground after the pirouette. His heart thumped, and he felt that if kept fighting through the killing intent, his body alone wouldn''t be capable of fighting the deadly creature in front of him.

    "Fuck it¡­", he growled as his sight adjusted to the darkness. His eyes reddened- his pupils turned into thin slits- and the creature''s body appeared in front of him. Under the soft light from the moon, two long and sharp canine glinted with their sharpness, causing the air around the creature to part.

    On each of the feline creature''s paws were attached razor-sharp claws that left deep crevice on the rocky field under their legs. What was the most horrifying wasn''t only the creature''s aura that smelled of pungent danger, but her enormous size that would easily topple the vehicle used in New Casablanca. A size to reckon.

 Chapter 251 - Cardinal Ghost Part Two

    Their gazes interlocked, and for a split second time seemed to come to a pause. Fell''s heartbeat twice in a split second, and for the first time since he entered the dark valley, he went with the flow of the ambient killing intent.

    He closed his eyes and mumbled in a faint low voice. "Let us kill each other then!", his face turned calm as the abnormal amount of killing intent he was filling was directed to his right arm. Soldier''s Fortune appeared-splitting the air surrounding her edges- and the next moment, Fell stepped forward.

    The feline creature was half a step slower-her starting speed clearly slower than Fell- but her savage instinct helped her cross the gap with Fell''s speed. However, although her starting speed of her dash could be said to be average, the momentum she gathered on a large but sleep body was incredibly strong.

    "My body is too weak for a frontal attack.", he thought in a split second. The fact that he has gone with the flow of the poisonous aura strangely made his mind clearer, allowing him to focus on the battle in front of him. He knew that his weakened physical body was too weakened to tank the creature''s sheer momentum.

    He continued running forward, and just the feline charge was going to make contact with him. He stepped twice in a single beat, executed a small pirouette that made him slide off the creature''s attack. The feline''s sharp and thick canines pushed against the ghost of Fell''s body, with the youth now having opened him a frame of opportunity to deal damage to the creature''s flank.

    One, two, three blow left his sword in an upbeat- blood splashed everywhere- and the creature continued running. When she came to a stop, her white fur had turned red on her right side, and a menacing low growl field with pain and anger left her throat.

    Fell mechanically faced her with a clear, and strangely calm mind that surprised him. To be such clear headed in an environment that made him depersonalize a few minutes earlier made him confident in taking care of the fierce beast in front of him. Even if fast, his eyes clearly caught every single movement of the creature, every single twitch from her firm and flexible feline muscles.

    He, once again, was the first to move. His rapid dash made him seemingly pierce through the space separating them, he reappeared under the beast''s head with his sword had already finished unleashing a broad swipe aimed at the thick furred neck. But the creature still managed to read the youth''s position in advance, and had sent a paw hurling toward his face.

    If that massive paw connected, Fell wouldn''t be surprised if his face was disfigured in an instant. Or worse, the strength contained in that paw, and with those sharp claw, it wouldn''t be surprising that his head ends up flying in the air.

    Still, none of that happened, as both opened had unleashed their attack in advance in a highspeed fashion: the sword and the claws connected, one noticeably weaker than the other. The sword might be slower and contained less physical momentum than the creature''s attack. Still, Soldier''s Fortune had acquired an incredible sharp intent nourished by the surrounding''s killing intent.

    And with Fell''s breakthrough, the strength of his sword rose once again to another peak, higher than the last one. A magnificent red line appeared in the creature''s front legs before it fell down on the ground with a thud. The feline creature hissed sharply, before pouncing on the youth of him.

    No surprise appeared on the youth''s face as he had expected the creature''s instant retaliation. He read through her bestial movement and predicted the feline pounce trajectory before speeding close across it toward the left. His body seemingly turned into a soft leaf that brushed past the creature''s sharp mouth and moved akin to a ghost he positioned himself on her back.

    The beast''s attack hit the dusty ground under their legs, and Fell''s leg was deeply rooted on the creature''s back with his sheeted sword in his hand. "Just like he had done.", the image of a giant with multiple arms drawing several blades in an Iai stance appeared in his mind. "I can also do the same!", he exclaimed as he breathe a sharp hiss.

    His killing intent swelled, and Fell moved in the blink of an eye. His left hand grabbed the scabbard in steel-like grasp, seemingly forming together into one entity, and his right hand did the same with his sword.

    His hand moved, and his sword left the scabbard and streaked toward the beast''s back. The movement looked slow, but it was only an illusion, and the speed of his draw was impressive. A sharp breath escaped from his lips, forming a small arrow of air condensation that spread through the air.

    "Faster!", his mouth opened, and a large amount of hair filled his lung. A ghostly phantom image appeared around him, and in the next moment, seven afterimages appeared around him. His blade left and entered the scabbard at an extreme speed that made the air around him release sparks.

    His attack cleared the dust raised by the feline creature''s attack, and before long, on her back appeared a flower that blossomed with a deep vivid slash of red. Fell sheeted his sword for one last time and jumped out of the creature''s back before leaving the dying beast.

    "Unless you evolve once again right now, your body will soon become void of any life!".

    "I pierced through every single vital organ in your body.", he thought as he felt the effect of the ominous poisonous killing intent had disappeared.

    He gazed at the sword grasped in his hand, and quickly felt the ominous and constant influx of killing intent was being fed to it.

    Suddenly, he turned around and saw the feline beast standing behind him. Her white moonlight colored fur had turned red, and her neck was only hanging due to a sturdy tread of muscles.

    Fell''s heart thumped, and his eyes interlocked with the creature''s eyes. He felt a shiver traverse his spine, and he couldn''t help but stay immobile while gazing at the creature standing at death''s door. Time seemed to come to a standstill. He continued looking at the animals who was currently bleeding chunks of her lifespan with every few seconds that passed.

    "What a fierce vitality!", he thought while lowering his defense after a minute passed. "You died the moment you moved to attack my back. Wasting your last bit of strength in an attempt to take my life.", he exhaled a sharp breath before breaking contact with the creature.

    Their fights had lasted less than a minute, yet the intensity of it cause Fell to grow once more. "The battlefield is truly the best way to progress in the sword way.", he mumbled as he continued feeding the surrounding killing intent to his sword. "I wonder what will happen If I continue feeding this much killing intent to Soldier''s Fortune."

    "I''ll try and accelerate the process.", he thought as he sat in a place nearby that wasn''t filthied by the monsters blood. He closed his eyes, and opened his pores to the utmost. Before long, he felt that the flux of killing intent had turned steady and was continually being fed to his sword.

    Somewhere around the mountains, close to Fell''s position but in a somewhat deeper place among the numerous valleys stood a red haired man with a bloodied figure. The amount of blood on his body was shocking, and not a single inch of his body was clean; blood still fresh from the constant fighting he was in.

    Under his legs was a pile of fresh corpse of monstrosities- their shapes differed and they were clearly from different species- and the only common point between them were their advanced state of mutation.

    His breathing was rough, and his eyes were muddled and cloudy without any speck of humanity left in them. He had indeed turned into the embodiment of the killing intent that encompassed the masses of mountains. His breathing was rough, and it took him a few second to recover the stamina he had lost from the berserker fighting style he had used earlier.

    A few moments passed, and a mass of red bubbling substance began escaping from the numerous carcass close to where he sat. The strange phenomenon appeared close to the man before extending toward every single dead body that existed in a hundred-meter radius from him; the further was the corpse''s position, the slower was the process.

    The man breathed a sharp breath, and a sentient glint appeared in his completely red eyes. He slowly sat on the ground, as his body began absorbing the mass of blood essence that regularly escaped the masses of corpse near him.

    "This mountain is a god sent gift.", he mumbled in a slightly coherent tone before falling silent as he focused on cultivating.

 Chapter 252 - Cardinal Ghost Part Three

    Time passed, and the night advanced at a slow pace, the soft moonlight turned into silky treads that softly lit up the dark valley. A fresh breeze passed through Fell''s lung as he continued transmitting the killing intent to his sword. He couldn''t help but oddly enjoy the clean environment that existed outside of the city.

    "If only those corpses weren''t here¡­", he thought as his nose couldn''t help but twitch by the smell hanging on the air. "I can sense that quite the amount of killing intent had been stored inside of it, and he couldn''t help but feel as though his weapon was being upgraded.

    "An upgrade of Soldier''s Fortune is news as good as a breakthrough for my cultivation.", he thought with a smile as he felt his weapon turn stronger with each minute passing. He knew the importance and relation of a sword for a sword cultivator and wouldn''t be surprised if there existed cultivation techniques that aimed at grooming innate weapons.

    "Anything is possible¡­", he thought as he gazed a the moon. His mind pondered on the many possibilities of the ways of cultivations, and dozed off in a semi meditative while instinctively feeding his sword massive amounts of the poisonous killing intent surrounding them. He couldn''t help but feel that all of this amount of fighting was beneficial for him, in one day he fought more, and bled more than in the rest of his time in the main district.

    "Battle Center sure is different from reality.", he thought as he felt the difference existing after this fight to the deaths. "The experience from the endless battlefield had come in quite handy¡­", he thought while hearing something in the distance.

    He closed his eyes, and his sense of hearing sharpened, and the next moment he heard rustling in a few dry weeds that was tenaciously growing on the deserted rocky area. Fell didn''t move as his eye opened and opened in a sharp slit- his breathing stopped as his focus rose to an incredible degree- and patiently waited while making himself unnoticeable.

    If one didn''t take a look directly at his figure, one wouldn''t notice his body and would only sense him like a rock. His nose twitched, but he didn''t pick up any smell coming from the area around the senses. "Crap all those carcasses might be hiding the creature''s smell.", he thought as he tried focusing even harder on his senses.

    The temperature of his brain rose, and he entered the hyper focused state as his senses sharpened in a split second. He continued gazing at the void for a long period of time, without flinching or give any sign of his presence despite the fact he was using the hyper focused state.

    Strangely, and thankfully, the fact his mind was void of killing intent gave an odd cool headed sensation in his mind. And it helped him better his hold on the hyper focused state he had put his mind through.

    "There is definitely something in front of me!", he thought with confidence in his senses. Time passed quietly as Fell kept holding the focused state, he held for more than thirty minutes before deciding to stop the technique.

    Still, he didn''t reveal his presence at all, and continued hiding his breath. Before long, more than an hour had passed, and there was still no change in his surroundings.

    "This creature is quite the type to be patient¡­", he thought with his eyelid began closing. He kept them slightly open- forming small slits- with a minute but intense glint appearing in those slits from the dark.

    The more time passed, the more his mind worked to kill time. Before long, a deadly promotion formed during his random pondering, a premonition related to the creature he sensed.

    "This is one strong creature¡­", he thought as he felt that the creature must have come as it sensed the strange change in the place surrounding Fell. The more he kept feeding his sword the killing intent existing near the mountain, the more his surroundings would be void from it.

    "I was a kind of creature capable of sensing the changes in the valley, I would surely come to the place where the most killing intent would be absorbed.", he thought as he felt lightning course through his body.

    "Although this is only a possibility, I still feel that it might be closer than what I thought.", his thought moved to what he was clenching in his hand. "Should I stop the absorption of Soldier''s Fortune?", he thought before immediately denying that possibility.

    "Absolutely not! Doing that would reduce my benefits, and most of all would leave me back to the abnormal killing intent given by this poisonous aura in the air.", he thought as he continued the process of feeding his sword the surrounding poisonous aura.

    The night advanced, and with each hour passing, Soldier''s Fortune quality rose. Fell didn''t unsheathe his sword from the scabbard, but he knew without taking a glance at it that its edge was already far sharper than before.

    "Looks like the creature wants to compete on patience¡­", he thought as a minute twitch surface on his lips. "It ain''t really my forte, but if it''s perseverance, you need¡­ Then, I''m your man.", he loudly thought in his mind. He wasn''t interested in killing the many beasts, and the upgrade of his sword had already made the trip worth it.

    He continued sitting there, without moving his muscles, moving a single inch. During that time, Akainmhar continued his bloodbath and slaughtered one beast after another in his pursuit of strength. In the end, both of them had come here for the purpose of reducing the beast wave, but had strangely ended up upgrading themselves.

    One used a mysterious treasure, while the other refined his sword with the ambient poisonous aura. Like that, the night passed, and there was only one hour left before the day made his way.

    "There is only an hour left before it''s dawn¡­", thought Fell as he knew that he should probably make his way back to the city. "I wonder what Akainmhar is doing right now, I just hope the bastard didn''t turn into a beast."

    For the first time since he had sat there to refine his sword, he moved. His joints popped and released numerous noise as he got up on his feet, he moved around a little bit before sighing. "Well, I guess he''s not the kind to die from those creature''s hands. In some sense, he''s quite the beast himself.", he thought before gazing at the spot where he had sensed movement.

    "I guess I have other trouble of my own to worry about.", he thought with a wry smile as he pondered on mean to force the creature out of its hiding.

    His lips parted open, and a sigh escaped from his lips before he drew his sword. His body went into a striking stance in a slow yet steady manner. His knee dropped low as his body began accumulating strength.

    His hand moved, and Soldier''s Fortune screeched as it flew out of its scabbard. Under the high-speed motion, the sound released from the contact of the sword with the steel resembled a bestial wail.

    His sword drew a semi circular path in the air, and released a vast amount of energy it had stocked during the night. All of the leftover aura it hadn''t digested left the metallic weapon and flew in the air toward the direction where Fell had sensed the beast. The ominous energy mixed itself with Fell''s own sword intent and formed a blood colored half moon that broke through the void and appeared near the dry patch of weed.

    A focused expression could be seen on Fell''s face, and he patiently waited for a long period of time without breaking sight with that place. His senses were released in an outward manner at the same time he had executed the sword strike, and nothing could escape from his detection.

    After a few minutes passed, the youth regained a normal stance and couldn''t help but have doubt flash on his face. He stepped a few steps forward, and couldn''t help but exclaim in a low tone.

    "I guess all this killing intent had made me quite paranoiac¡­", he mumbled before turning around. His slow yet steady steps quickly took him out of the valley filled with corpses, and before long, his figure could be seen near the forest that laid at the bottom of the chain of mountains.

    "Where the hell is that bastard?", he thought as he couldn''t help but imagine a scene where the red haired man would appear among the beast wave. "I don''t think he''ll lose his life here, and I''m just afraid that he''ll lose his mind¡­", he thought as he began making his way toward the city.

    "Whatever, I don''t think he''ll face much trouble with his treasure on him.". His figure disappeared among the many thick trees.

 Chapter 253 - Cardinal Ghost Part Four

    Soon enough, just as the sun was gradually revealing itself to the city. Fell''s figure slowly appeared near the wall that surrounded the town and noticed that a few pictures stood on top of the steep wall.

    "They''re already waiting for the beast''s arrival.", he thought as he accelerated his steps. Before long, he stood right at the base of the humongous wall that soon began shining due to the soft light coming from the sun. His soul energy coursed through his body; with the youth directed it toward his arms in a skillful way.

    Two giant tentacles appeared in front of him, and the next moment his knee dropped low before he violently kicked at the ground under him. His figure turned into a bullet, and he rose at a great height; he began using his tentacle to aid his ascension and before long had attained the peak of the wall.

    The few individuals that were looking at the distance noticed him. At first, an awry look flashed on their faces as they saw a bloodied figure climb on the wall. They couldn''t help but nearly run toward their MechSuit as they felt the ominous aura around him. They weren''t even cultivators, but they still felt the tenacious and virulent aura emanating from Soldier''s Fortune.

    He nodded toward them with a smile on his face, and although they didn''t recognize him due to his shape. One of them remembered the word of a friend of his who had served in the west wall; stories about a fearless youth that fought deep in the beast wave. His strength made him the equal of a one man army, and he had been slaying numerous fierce mutated creatures for the whole day.

    A flash of respect with a tinge of fear appeared on one of the soldier''s faces. He tapped on the shoulders of one of them, and wanted to speak, but nothing escaped from his mouth for a few seconds.

    "He''s with us.", he managed to say after a few seconds before noticing Fell''s smile and mimicked him with a respectful nod. They stood in their places, hesitant on what to say or do, in fear of causing the man to feel uneasy toward them.

    "Thanks for your efforts.", Fell spoke toward them with gratitude in his voice before turning back, jumping out of the wall. But this time, he jumped inside of the city''s defense in the direction of the central district. He fell sharply like a bullet, and in the last few meters, used his tentacles to reduce his falling speed drastically. In the last meter, before his body would hit the floor, his velocity had dropped to the point where he looked as if he gliding on the air.

    A few particles of dust rose from the ground. He looked around and identified his position in the city before leaving the street closest to the wall. After a few streets, he appeared in one of the main roads of the central district, one that made the tour of the circular city."

    "It will take me more than five minutes to arrive to my apartment¡­", he thought as he stopped in his place and hesitated for a second. "But the battle center is just nearby¡­ Guess I''ll go there!", he thought as he doubled his speed.

    He crossed two streets that were void of any life, and before long, he could see the entrance of the Battle Center in the corner of the road.

    "I wonder what they''re doing in those times¡­", he mumbled with a thoughtful expression. "I''m not exactly sure on their capacities to help in defense of the city¡­", he exclaimed with a sigh. "In the end, they''re just part of an universal business¡­ I doubt if there exists even a speck of intention to defend the city."

    His thought might have been harsh toward the Battle Center, but he still didn''t hope much intervention from them. However, there even existed a specific reason for why he had sent Wind there.

    His figure arrived in front of the entrance, and the door opened in front of him. "They are still open to the public¡­", he thought while looking around. His eyes opened widely as he noticed the numerous people standing around, as if nothing significant was happening to the city, and that there weren''t hundreds of thousands of beast attacking their city.

    A few individuals gazed at him, and their smiles disappeared from their faces. They couldn''t help but alert their friends about the arrival of the man who entered the battle center, his bloodied figure was soon noticed by all. But strangely, it was as though they felt his intent, and nobody tried to block his way or try to talk to him.

    His body and the quick steps he was taking translated a variety of minute movements that showed the urgency in the youth''s path.

    "Who''s that?", mumbled one of the youth as he saw Fell''s back turn smaller and smaller as he approached the zone where the elevators were placed.

    "He might be a top ranker who felt like testing the real battlefield¡­", he mumbled in a low tone. His head was held low, and he even hid his lips from the eyes of everybody. He wasn''t someone ranked high enough to assume any problems with the top ranker.

    Fell couldn''t help but feel at ease when stepping back through the purple colored carpet under his feet. His eyes darted right and left, and before long the sentimental thought was swiftly overrun by the

    "They seem to be quite tranquil here. Their thoughts free of any worry¡­", his expression swiftly turned back to being neutral. And none of the emotional shocks he had felt was present on his face.

    "Whatever they had told them, it seems that it had quite a positive effect on the players¡­", but his word swiftly changed as he noticed a pair of depressed youth sitting on a couch. "Those two are giving off the same vibe as someone who was sentenced to death¡­", he thought as he continued on his road.

    Before long, he arrived near the elevator, and the pair of metallic doors glided as its interior revealed itself to Fell. Who didn''t make the elevator wait too much as he took a gigantic step that crossed the distance, the door closed, and before long, Fell reappeared on the floor where the chairman''s office was.

    He crossed the long pathway leading to the middle-aged man''s office. He met a few battle maiden on the road, and they couldn''t help but throw odd glances at him due to his bloodied figure. Yet those glances were still followed with respectful nods before they darted away. One of them turned around and gazed for a long time at his back without moving. She couldn''t help but recognize part of his features and was intrigued by his small yet large back that seemed capable of holding numerous responsibilities.

    But, in the end, she couldn''t help but calmly shake her shoulders before turning back and following the other battle maiden. Fell soon arrived near the entrance of the chairman''s office, and couldn''t help but stop for a second before looking at his clothes.

    "Fuck¡­ I once again stink of beast blood¡­", he thought as he hesitated for a second. "Meh, I''ll see if he can get me pair of fresh cloth while I ask about those matter''s here.", he thought before stepping inside of the man''s office. The first thing that entered his eyes were the small metallic colored black office that sat in the middle of the decent sized room.

    Behind the black desk sat a middle aged man that swiftly noticed Fell, and greeted him while boasting an enormous smile on his face. "Fell, my friend!", he exclaimed while getting on his legs from his chair. "How have you been doing?", he exclaimed as he approached him.

    "Well, I''m good as you can see!", exclaimed Fell with a self deprecating grin on his face. The middle aged man chairman couldn''t help but chuckle as he saw the bloodied cloth.

    "Looks like the beasts, outside the walls, aren''t very welcoming¡­", said the chairman with an elusive tone in his voice.

    "New Casablanca isn''t welcome toward them either.", responded Fell briskly before inviting himself and walked past the chairman before sitting in the couch.

    "What made your steps arrive here? I''m pretty sure you have ample fight to accomplish here.", he added with yet another hidden tone to his words.

    Fell didn''t know if the dean in front of him was teasing him, or if he was testing his limits. He responded to the joke with a fake smile that made the chairman swallow his saliva. Silence permeated the room, and before long, the chairman coughed a few times dryly before making his way toward his chair.

    He sat and began arranging the desk in front of him. He avoided Fell''s gaze for a minute, but the youth''s piercing gaze finally caused him to be absorbed by his sight. He stopped his act and looked thoughtfully at Fell before coughing yet another time.

 Chapter 254 - Cardinal Ghost Part Five

    "Well, it looks like we can''t avoid this talk.", he exclaimed with a bitter smile. He glanced at the youth who didn''t take long to answer him.

    "You bet we''re not avoiding this.", he exclaimed as part of aura was infused in his speech. "I''ve had many questions, and I hope you won''t leave them unanswered, mister chairman.", he added before he stopped for a second.

    A bashful expression flashed on his face, and he couldn''t hesitate but dryly laugh before pointing toward his clothes.

    "Before that, do you mind getting a fresh pair of cloth?", he asked with a polite smile on his face. None of the hidden threat he had been showing the chairman was apparent anymore, and the middle aged couldn''t help but relax as he released a silent sigh.

    "O-Of course, young hero!", he exclaimed before breaking contact with Fell''s piercing gaze and turned his eyes to the desk in front of him. His hand moved, and in an instant, a flash of light appeared in front of the desk, and a holographic screen hangs in front of the dean''s eyes.

    A serious expression was on his face, and he executed the whole ordeal with a religious manner that couldn''t be broken down by anything. He only stopped after finishing his call with a battle maiden. His head turned Fell, and he looked expectantly at the cultivator in front of him, hoping to have eased the tension existing between them.

    "I have asked a dependable battle maiden who will take care of your needs, sir. In a short period of time, no longer than five minutes, several pairs of comfortable and solid cloths will be available in your room.", he exclaimed with a smile before adding. "Well, you still have your card, right?", he ended before waiting for an answer.

    Fell nodded with a sly smile on his face. He couldn''t help but feel that the man in front of him couldn''t be trusted. "A true business owner.", he thought before glancing at the ceiling for a split second. "But¡­ is he scared of me?", he asked himself.

    "Of scared of what I''m worth for the organization behind this battle center.", he thought before his sight shifted back to the middle-aged man in front of him. A smile appeared on Fell''s lips, one void of any of the earlier playfulness, but one of a man that was ready lay his card open.

    "Spinters.", he exclaimed as he called the chairman by his name. "What is the modus operandi of a battle center when the city he runs in is attacked?".

    "Well, there exist multiple ways, young hero. But if I had to pin it down in one sentence, then¡­", he exclaimed before falling silent for a few seconds. It was obvious, based on his facial expression, that he was formulating the sentence in his head, threading carefully as to not sell out to many of his own cards.

    "He is dangerous!", thought Fell as he noticed the minute details on the chairman''s face. "He isn''t hiding anything from me at all!", he added as he noticed that the chairman was finally open his lips again.

    "It all comes down to the outcomes of the battle in question. Each Battle Center is a tremendous asset to the organization behind us, and sadly, they have been very inclined on to not intruding on people''s matter-"

    "People''s matter?!", Fell stopped him as he gazed at him calmly before making a gesture that showed he was asking him to continue.

    "Exactly", continued the chairman. "What the Battle Center can offer is a strong and solid future, with a deep foundation that wouldn''t be shaken by space nor time."

    Fell quickly caught on what he meant, and couldn''t but respond but a slightly fiery tone.

    "Offering a future?", he questioned again. "By that, do you mean that the battle center can offer shelter to anyone from New Casablanca?".

    "Any player from New Casablanca is offered a chance to survive this ordeal.", he added. "And as the old saying say, with each calamity comes to a blessing.", Spinters continued explaining with a mysterious tone. "By that, I simply mean that the relocation of each player can be different."

    It struck Fell like lightning, and he couldn''t help but swiftly link up Spinters words with the depressed youth in the entrance. In a competitive world, it all ends up to the ranking ¡ª thousands of corpses under the feet of a pair of genius that dominated each generation. Fell swallow the bitter thought he was having and focused back on the man in front of him.

    "How can the relocation be done?", asked the youth with a serious expression on his face.

    "We have our own means, but do know that each number is counted.", his last words caused a change in Fell''s expression, and his grip on the couch couldn''t help but tighten for a split second. He nearly tore the leathery couch''s surface, and only came back to his senses after a short exhale.

    His face paled considerably, and his gaze turned back toward Spinters before opening his lips. "What If we do a deal?", he exclaimed with a determined voice.

    Spinters'' eyes shone brightly for a split second, and a beaming smile drew itself on his face. In a split second, his posture changed, and the pressure he was releasing couldn''t be compared to before.

    "Here he is!", thought Fell as he knew that the man in front of him was the real Spinters. "The amiable dean is gone, the man in front of him is his true persona. Sadly, If I want to have the most amount of chance to get what I want, I''ll have to accept any term!"

    His grin curved into a sly grin, and the dean Spinter opened his lips with piercing eyes. "What do you propose, young hero?", he exclaimed before asking yet another question. "What are young hero''s condition?"

    "Those are very necessary if we have to make a deal.", he added yet another question. Fell couldn''t help but feel himself tighten due to the barrage of questions, but he didn''t show anything and continued listening to the man in front of him.

    Before long, he inhaled a deep breath, and gazed long at the chairman in front of him before opening his lips. He spoke calmly and took his time to be as clear as possible.

    "I want your power of relocation to be used as a last resort escape for the citizen of this city.", he said with determination. His eyes glowed with the fiery resolve, he showed through his body language that he wouldn''t change his condition.

    A lengthy burst of explosive laughter escaped Spinters throat as his face turned red. It took him a whole minute to gather his composure back, he then opened his lips with neutral tone. "This is quite the greedy terms, young hero.", he added with a clear difference in the tone he used when spelling ''young hero''.

    "I''m ready to pay the price.", he added before looking deeply at the chairman''s eyes to show him his unwavering determination. "How many life can I save if I give away my whole self!", asked the youth with unprecedented determination.

    In the end, he could only end up selling himself to the battle center in the hope of saving the soul of the city. With it''s inhabitant alive, even if the city disappeared, its spirit would still be passed down to each generation.

    He hadn''t been ready to do such a selfless act. And had even doubted if every single one of his hypothesis could have been true, but in the end. It ended with him being right- as Fell was a person who truly wanted to save the city- he couldn''t leave without doing his utmost. Words and good intentions couldn''t save the city, and in the end, he could only sell his future as a cultivator to the organization behind the battle center.

    "You seem quite resolved as I can see.", exclaimed Spinters before adding. "I can say that I like you, and If it was only with my own decision, then I would have saved everyone."

    "But the resources used to relocate individuals are necessary assets for the whole organization''s life.", he explained with a thoughtful expression that showed he was truly relating with Fell. "And sadly, we can''t afford to burn the whole treasure to relocate every citizen."

    "Well, does losing a treasure outweigh the gain of winning one, mister Spinters?"¡ª Interrupted Fell with a smile on his face. "Look at my records, and look at what I have accomplished. Make me a favor Spinters, ask your higher-ups, and explain the situation to them."

    "What I am offering isn''t simply my life, my future, or my soul to the organization.", he exclaimed succinctly. "I''m offering my unwavering intent to turn into one of the strongest stars that exist in this realm!", his voice turned abstruse, and sparks appeared in the air around him. His emotions left his heart in an outburst that turned into a physical phenomenon of his own projection.

 Chapter 255 - Crusade Under The Stary Sky Part One

    Soon after he finished speaking, the phenomenon that had appeared in the blink of an eye turned into ghosts that disappeared In the void. Yet, the striking intent that existed in his voice didn''t go away as it began waiting on the sitting Spinters.

    He felt the pressure surrounding him, rise to the utmost limit, exceeding anything he had ever felt before. The next moment he felt as if he was standing in front of one of the cultivators he had seen back when he had entered the organization''s rank.

    "He has enormous potential!", he thought as he felt that the Fell in front of him wasn''t hiding anything from him. "Outstanding!", he mumbled as he felt as if the person in front of him was utterly different from the youth he had met.

    "How did someone like you develop from such a shitty town?", he mumbled without leaving the youth''s figure from his sight.

    "Well, I can''t deny that I received quite the big from a mysterious individual.", he exclaimed in a loud voice. "Sounds, quite the classic cliche, right?".

    "What do you think of my offer, mister Spinters?", Fell asked before falling silent. He knew that he had already spoken enough; considering Spinters thought, he wouldn''t ask more about the origin of Anzar. In the end, every cultivator was an individual bestowed with some luck.

    "All I can say is that I can''t make the decision myself.", finally responded Spinters after a minute passed. "Your future might be limitless, but mine isn''t, and I can''t afford to take responsibility for the organization."

    "Those venerable ancestors might not care about such loss, but those vengeful ghosts under them won''t wait long before coming at my back.", Spinters added, causing a change in Fell''s expression. "But, taking into account what you have decided to trade, I''m sure we can arrive at a decent result.", he finished succinctly before flashing a beaming smile toward Fell.

    Fell looked for a long time at the man in front of him. He couldn''t regret what he had proposed as he knew that, in the end, the action was needed as the danger didn''t only reside in the fierce beasts army attack.

    "He is beaming from joy¡­", he thought Fell while looking at Spinters face that looked as if he had gained a few years of lifespan. "Well, this is only a last option to try and save a few citizens¡­"

    "Do not worry, young hero.", said Spinters while looking at him deep in the eyes. He got up from his chair and took three large strides that took him to the door. He then turned toward Fell with a large smile before exclaiming softly, "your clothes are waiting for you, young hero. And you should take this opportunity to take some well-earned rest.

    Fell got up from the couch and stepped out of the room without another word. He walked silently through the dimly lighted corridor, and before long, made his way to the elevator.

    "I wonder what Wind is currently doing?", thought Fell while looking at his figure in the mirror. "I''ve been getting good at getting myself in horrible states.", he exclaimed with a wry smile as he gazed at himself with apparent self deprecation on his face. His mind wandered aimlessly for a few seconds before he gathered his composure as he felt the elevator''s ascension come to a stop.

    He left the metallic box that surrounded him and made his way through the new floor before coming to a stop in front of an emerald colored door. He gazed for a few seconds, and the door before wiping his hand next to it. In the grasp of his hand was a metallic card- the same as the door- that he had taken from his spatial pocket earlier.

    The door opened, and the place where he had resided in the battle center once again entered his sight. He sighed as he felt slight nostalgia toward this place, especially when he gazed at the metallic cerebral link that sat next to the large sized bed. His gaze intensified as his reminiscences about what he had accomplished in this room resurfaced.

    "The ancestor''s words are still resonating with me to this very day.", he thought as he closed his eyes for a split second. "This world, anything is possible¡­", he thought before coming to a stop. "Is it truly worth dying despite being faced with a potentially limitless future?", he thought as he fell silent while standing in the middle of the room.

    His thought was muddled, and his internal struggle led him to stand still for a long period of time. "Man¡­", he thought as he released a long sigh from between his slightly opened lips. He moved, and with slow steps, arrived in the bathroom where he took out his cloth in a daze.

    Before long, he stood under the shower with his thought running at the same speed as the water falling on him. He couldn''t help but feel perturbed by the fact that an option where everyone could be said existed, yet at the same time, he couldn''t help but feel that in this option, there would be many concessions that would be made.

    "Fuck¡­ That Splinters is more sly than I thought¡­", he mumbled as he stopped the running water in the shower. He left the bathroom in slow steps as he dried himself with a slight revolution of energy near his skin.

    After a few minutes, he was sitting on the bed next to the cerebral link. On him were a pair of fresh cloth that lightly sat on top of his skin. He couldn''t help but feel refreshed even though the water in the shower was burning hot. His mind cooled down as his pores opened up in an attempt to cool down his body''s temperature.

    Before long, his mind hovered to a positive mindset as he began slowly digesting the bitter pill he had ingested. Selling his own assets as a cultivator to the Battle Center was quite the unexpected move as he had to act according to the urgency of the situation. But in the end, he felt no regret toward that as he would gladly give his body to save a few citizens of the city.

    Deep in his heart, he had felt guilty about everything that was happening. The beast attack was in the end caused by him, and it was the same for the incoming bombing that would sooner or later erase the city from the face of the planet. "Well, I guess I can count this as a win¡­", he thought, not even sure about it himself.

    In the end, the price had come down to his freedom as an individual. What he had sold wasn''t only his freedom, but also the grasp on destiny he had acquired after Anzar''s tutelage. If he followed the battle center''s tutelage, he might end up stronger than now and might even acquire better techniques.

    But globally, his range of possibilities would have shrunken down to only being a follower of the organization who owned Battle League. A gloomy expression appeared on the youth''s face, and constant sighs escaped from his lips as he constantly muddled over the new possibilities that arose.

    The last bits of insecurities he had dug out of his heart resurfaced, and he couldn''t help but feel anxious for the first time ever since he had become a cultivator.

    His soul cultivation, sadly, didn''t come handy in his situation as his whole persona was in the process of facing a mental calamity. His mental demons resurfaced, stronger than ever, as they began chewing on his mental strength.

    Before long, he sat with his head down, a heavy aura of depression and sorrow escaped from his frail figure. His own mental power was nourishing the negative emotion he was feeling, and before long, those emotions materialized in the room around him; Turning into a soft, soft yet distant sigh that reverberated everywhere around him.

    He only moved after an hour passed. His shoulder rounded in front of his chest- with head dropped low- and a curved back that didn''t contain any of the past might and power it had before. His eyes gazed at the distance, and as if his vision could pierce through the thick and solid wall surrounding him, and continued outwardly till he could magically gaze at the on going battlefield.

    "It is time.", he exclaimed softly before rising from his sitting position. He walked slowly toward the door, and before long, he left the building of the battle center in an unhurried manner that shouldn''t be executed by someone who was in the midst of leaving to defend the city.

    "This body, I will overuse till there is nothing in thing. And only then, will I be capable of seeing through falsehood or truth¡­", he exclaimed as the cloudiness in his eyes contained a minute glint of sharpness.

 Chapter 256 - Crusade Under The Stary Sky Part Two

    He mechanically walked toward the massive wall that protected the city. And before long, he arrived at the place where he had stood many times in the past days. He couldn''t help but feel at daze when he looked at the glinting sun that hung high the sky, he couldn''t help but feel strangely at ease, and before long, a shiver traversed his body as he physically could be seen twitching slightly.

    "Ugh¡­", his eyes blanked for a split second. And before long, his eyes closed and he opened them once again, only this time there seem to exist a purple layer overlaying his amber colored eyes.

    "This sensation¡­", he mumbled as he felt a shiver coming from his own soul. It seemed as if the origin of soul persona had been split in half, with both sides being the sole evolution that his ego body could potentially turn into. His lips moved, forming a bitter grin that minutely twitched, and he couldn''t help but sigh before resuming his steps.

    "Who would have thought that my breakthrough would begin now¡­", he thought as he continued walking. "I can sense that the moment my shift of mind would come to a stop, a change will happen, and I will be forced to take one decision¡­", he mumbled in a low tone that couldn''t be heard by anyone.

    Before long, he was already in the middle of mindlessly ascending the steep wall. And before long, he stood on top of it with the view of the outside wastelands entering his eyes.

    "Just as I guessed¡­", he thought while noticing that the number of the beasts surrounding the city had drastically thinned. "I don''t know if it''s the same degree in the other defensive outpost, but I''m positive on one thing.", he exclaimed softly with a severe expression.

    "The thinner the beast wave will be. The stronger the average beast in it will be¡­", he mumbled as he noticed the signature energy of the beast in front of him.

    "One night had past, and the average strength of those beasts had grown to this point. What will happen in two days, three days¡­ A week?!", he thought as his hand moved toward his lips. His finger lightly tapped in rhythm on his chin as he began expanding his area of soul detection.

    The further his senses left his body. His face turned darker and darker as he began noticing many blood essence signature in the distance. "What the hell are those monsters!?", he thought as a shiver traversed his body.

    "How did they manage to evolve to this state in one day!?", he thought as he couldn''t help but feel fear toward the beast wave in front of his eyes. "Where did they come from?", he mumbled as he couldn''t help but ask himself about those specific beasts origin.

    "Those are the true beast wave!", he mumbled as he felt the strong aura blink in the distance. "Yet they don''t seem as though they are going to participate¡­", his heart sank in his chest. "They are too strong for this city!", he mumbled as he felt an alarm rang in his head.

    He broke off the blood detection technique, and his body resumed motion as he darted in a dash before jumping outside of the wall. His figure pierced through air as he seemed to turn into a seamless breeze of wind that disappeared before reappearing in the soft mud near the base of the wall.

    "This!?", he exclaimed as he felt the after taste of what he had done. As he jumped out of the wall, an exhilarating expression had coursed through his body, and he managed to execute something he had tried doing many times in the past. Breaking through the limitation made on the body by the air friction had always been one of Fell''s main preoccupation when it came to developing his movement technique.

    However, he had never managed actually to accomplish anything and had only been randomly thinking about many possibilities. But strangely, those ideas all ended into failures, but somehow, managed to accumulate into foundations for his research on that subject.

    In the moment where he had jumped, it was as if he entered a state similar to having an epiphany. It lasted for a split second, but that moment had marked itself deeply in the young cultivator''s thought. He felt as if he had turned into a matter that couldn''t be blocked by the fine particle that existed everywhere around him.

    "This¡­ It''s actually like this¡­", he mumbled once again as he darted in a run. His speed broke through the limit, but he could still feel that the air around him was constraining him, tightening around his skin. That friction might be minute when walking, but as his speed rose to terrifying height, it began forming a barrier that couldn''t be blocked.

    "I''ll try it again!", he thought as he fell in deep reminiscence of the sensation that coursed through his body. He was looking deep in the memory existing in every fiber of muscles, energy, or spectral matter than composed his body.

    His body slowed down for a second, and the next moment, It seemed as if a delicate invisible membrane had surrounded his body, Sheltering it from the friction that holds down his speed. In that moment, an explosion resounded from the air around him, and the youth turned into a speeding wind that ran toward the beasts.

    The execution of the air breaking technique as he would later name it wasn''t perfect, as he clearly lacked proficiency due to being its first time using it. Its effect was still a feat to be reckoned too as it caused Fell to acquire an incredible boost to his already lightning-fast speed.

    The many beasts in the distance turned more prominent and larger as he approached the ongoing battlefield. A sharp glint appeared on his right hand, and he took three steps in a strange pattern the moment he was a hundred meters away from a deadly looking bear standing on his two feet.

    ''Ghostly Stutter'' didn''t raise his speed but wholly erased his presence just before he entered the battlefield from the flank of the beast wave. His first target had already been chosen, and it could be seen roaring from a towering four meter height as it was making her way toward the army of MechSuit in the distance.

    In a split second, the distance was crossed, and Fell''s blade had appeared in an elusive manner near the thick spiked fur of the mutated beast. The soft light coming from the tip of the sword didn''t even make contact with the fur near the beast''s throat as it was already splitting away from Fell''s sword intent.

    The inevitable happened, and the sword made contact with the thick beast''s skin and hard muscles. He felt a soft yet firm resistance on the end part of his sword that caused his sword to stop a few inches deep inside the creature''s neck.

    The wound might sound dangerous for the creature, but its size was truly ridiculous compared to the bear''s humongous height.

    Fell released a coarse grunt, and the next moment, streams of heaven and earth energy coursed through his meridians. The sword intent surrounding his sword thickened and turned sharper as Fell injected more will on his sword. All of this took time to explain, but it indeed happened in a split second.

    In a single moment, Fell released the entirety of his cultivation and released a wide slash that cut through the creature''s thick bones with ease. As soon as he slaughtered the beast, his might reduced as his cultivation base was restrained.

    "I need to manage my stamina. Those beasts are forcing me to execute blows with my full might¡­", he thought with bitterness flooding his heart. "Sadly, this wouldn''t have been a trouble if my body wasn''t this void of blood essence."

    But he still had to accept the harsh reality as he knew that his body wouldn''t recover in a few day from such expenditure. Unless he consumed rare resources, he would need a minimum of a month to recover with a standard nutrition program. But that time would be significantly lengthened if his body continued receiving injuries and loose blood.

    His deeply breathed a fresh breath of air in his air; his powerful muscles tightened around his lung as the area around his lips turned into a space void of any air. A chilling sensation coursed through his mind, and once again he decided to delve in the battlefield to turn down the voices in his head.

    "This is the only way¡­", he thought as he turned into a wisp of air that coursed through many creatures in a complex path. His elusive movement made him turned into a seamless ghost of the battlefield. After his passage, the strong monstruosities would fall down with an ungodly amount of blood released from their bodies.

 Chapter 257 - Crusade Under The Stary Sky Part Three

    His body sped through the battlefield, aided with the new application of heaven and earth energy, he managed to break through parts of the limitation that had held his speed back. His body turned into a soft wind that softly blew on the battlefield. Whenever he went, showers of blood would steam and color the ground under them with vivid red color.

    "Even with their strength, the rule doesn''t change. The more I kill from their ranks, the less death there will be among the citizen.", he exclaimed in a soft tone with a calm face. He faced the many monstrosities with crystal clear eyes that seemed oblivious to the blood bath he was orchestrating.

    None of the killings he accomplished was causing a change on his face, and he solely gave the impression of someone doing his homework. Every wisp of killing intents he generated was swiftly transmitted to his sword. It was gathered there before being absorbed by the sword''s own aura.

    An aura that- although hidden- could be sensed by every single creature on the battlefield. Sadly, the moment they felt its presence that was similar to the one released by one of their kins, they didn''t have the time to turn their eyes toward it before their vision changed drastically before darkening.

    Head fell one after the other as the young cultivator unleashed the arsenal of technique he had developed. Transitions between the style of ''Moon Above'' and ''Sun Bellow'' were executed every few moves in a fluid manner that didn''t cause any pause in his movement.

    His mind- clear of any futile thought- was at ease as he felt a chilling sensation coming from his right hand. His energy ran smoothly through his meridian as he controlled it in a fluid motion, and he felt as if he could read through the beast''s movement patterns.

    Using that information, his killing efficiency rose with each minute passing as his mind analyzed the flow of the battlefield he was swimming in. Every beast he would slaughter would be used as an experiment to further better his heaven and earth energy.

    "Those beasts aren''t anything I can take care of in my current state¡­", he thought about the tremendously obscure and compelling blood essence signature he had vaguely picked up from quite the distance. "This is the moment where I will have to give my whole and prove that what I said to Spinters wasn''t just empty words!", he exclaimed as he began looking for a way to further augment his fighting prowess.

    Soon after he began fighting, he noticed that his zen mental state made him capable of better control of his lightning based heaven and earth energy. He felt the change through the execution of his technique that was leaving his body at a faster speed.

    The crooked and novice meridian pathway cycle he used during the execution of ''Moon Above'' and ''Sun Bellow'' was changed. He aimed to completely rearrange the move energy outlet as his current strength was nothing compared to when he had created the two sister techniques. With every execution, the method used to released his heaven and earth would also be different.

    "During this frame, there exists a slight pause in the distribution of energy through the meridians of my right arm¡­", he thought as he analyzed every little detail in his technique. "What I need to take down those terrifying beast I sensed can only be done with the right amount of firepower¡­", he thought with a bitter smile as he could feel his body''s stamina drop lower and lower.

    "This much isn''t enough to take me out of the battlefield!", he thought as his figure turned into a ghost of the battlefield that slaughtered one mutated beast after another. His killing spree was beginning to attain height grand to the point where the beast wave in the north of New Casablanca could be seen thinning to the naked eye.

    "Faster¡­ I need to get stronger faster!", he mumbled through gritted teeth as he felt himself delve deeper in the analysis of his technique. His body went on a near autopilot, killing spree as his mind developed numerous ways of cycling energy through his meridian.

    "The energy refinement pattern I''ve been using to direct my energy is too simple¡­". He thought while turning a creature''s heart into powder after jabbing a beast''s chest with ''Sun Bellow''. His sword technique had already been raised to a terrifying degree, capable of taking down any of the creature present in one move or two, but he was sure that this was far from being enough when he would face those at the top of the beast wave.

    His mind worked in tandem with his body, as he began developing one application after another. Not all of them were done with success, and a few could even be said to have been a complete failure with his energy being far too lacking or on the contrary wasted because he had used too much of it.

    But all of those attempts, and application he developed, served as a foundation for what would become Fell''s own style of refining energy. A method unique to him that would take him further apart from the foundational cultivation technique Anzar had given him.

    "What he had gifted me was a solid base. A foundation I can rely on as I make my first step through a dangerous world¡­ But now it is time¡­"

    "Anything is possible in a cultivator''s life!", he thought as his mind turned into a colorful engine that roared with thousands of thought process. "Just like I did with the Massin Martial Art.", he mumbled in a low tone while dashing through the battlefield. "I will use this cultivation method as the base of my technique and develop a method of controlling energy based on my own element!"

    As soon as he took the decision, his creativity and imagination came in handy as he began experimenting in the middle of the battlefield.

    Hours passed, and the number of people who managed to take a peek at Fell''s figure for more than a few frames was less than the fingers of a hand. Sometime, his entire being would sublime, and his presence would appear in the middle of the battlefield with raging lightning sparkling around his body.

    Sometimes, it would just be his sword that would be surrounded by ferocious lightning energy that directly cooked any nearby flesh that approached it. Time advanced, and his efficiency at controlling his power continued rising through the hour of constant practice.

    "This isn''t something I can do in a single day.", he thought with a bitter smile. "But every inch of progress is something that can help me drastically.", he felt the fluidity of his energy as his body came to a stop for a single second ¡ª his cloth, fresh and untouched by the blood of the battlefield.

    A complete contrast from his fight, the day before; As his clothes had turned into ragged fabric, that held tightly onto his body due to the number of injuries he had taken.

    But now, he hadn''t been touched at all during the entire time where he had stood in the north battlefield. His fighting prowess continually rising with each minute passing, outlasting his old self with every new experiment he did.

    "The foundation is the cultivation method given by Anzar¡­ What I now need to do, is to practice the control of my heaven and earth energy constantly. Only then will I have the qualification to gaze at the opportunity of refining my own cultivation method.", he thought with a chilling cold calmness suffusing from his eyes.

    He didn''t give the impression that he was a young soldier fighting to protect his city. But simply, a young cultivator who was doing research in his immortal cave. His blood didn''t boil, and his passion didn''t ignite nor kindle as everything was swiftly absorbed by his sword who had turned into a sheet for his emotions.

    Soldier''s Fortune was absorbing everything that surfaced from Fell''s ego body. Killing Intent, joy, sadness, sorrow, every wisp of emotion he felt was swiftly transmitted to his bladed weapon. Apart from Killing Intent that served to strengthen his weapon, the rest was used to reinforce further the link existing between a sword and her user.

    "This is the only way!", he thought as he darted forward. His heaven and earth energy flooded his leg, and in the next moment, his figure turned into a blinding figure that crossed the battlefield in one step. He reappeared in front of a salamander shaped lizard- the beast''s jaw was open and was ready to snap at the MechSuit in front of him- and his speed didn''t reduce as he didn''t break off ''Solary Dive'' usage.

    His entire body turned into a sword as his body sparked due to his heaven and earth energy. A shower of blood turned the standing still MechSuit red as the youth disappeared in the distance.

 Chapter 258 - Crusade Under The Stary Sky Part Four

    "Not yet¡­", he thought as tried another alternative route through his meridians. "Still too slow!", he thought as he changed yet again the technique he using with his utmost focus and control.

    The hour passed, and he moved through every single one of his techniques. Sadly, he didn''t manage to finish his work, but his efficiency at controlling the lightning based energy that coursed through his meridians rose. The ordinarily aggressive power turned milder under his control, and it was as if each speck of energy had been hidden inside of a scabbard, releasing its explosiveness only in the last moment.

    He puffed and huffed as he recovered his breath and looked at the few beasts in front of him. Through his training, he had taken down more than the quarter of the monster in the north wall. A feat that was soon noticed by the soldiers who didn''t take long to push harder.

    Sadly, the beasts weren''t the same as they were the last day, and the soldier''s push only ended up with a few death among the MechSuit pilot. The difference in strength had begun augmenting, and now, nearly five MechSuit soldiers were needed to take down one beast.

    And the difference continued growing as the hour passed, and a few ravenous beasts began taking down each other in a carnivorous rampage. Their strength rose once again as they were scared by the numerous deaths of their kins.

    They felt the life of many beasts extinguished in the past hours- and with the heightened intelligence coming from the mutation- they couldn''t help but feel free. The more a creature evolved, the higher sentient state It would become, and with that, it didn''t long for them to begin killing each other in the hope of growing.

    "What the hell?", he thought as he saw one minute bite half of the chin of another creature. It chewed down twice before swallowing the bloodied mashed meat, and just as they were going to pounce on each other, both beasts froze into statues before their bodies turned into small cubes of flesh and bones. "They are trying to reproduce what had happened last night¡­ But it seems as though their effort is less rewarding without the ambient poisonous killing intent that existed in the mountains."

    His voice trembled slightly, and he couldn''t help but send his blood detection outwardly in the surrounding of the ongoing battlefield. There, he sensed the dark and powerful energy that made his face go slightly pale. His leg kicked the ground under him, and he turned into a silent gale of wind that traversed the battlefield.

    "Looks like this beast still managed to evolve under those situations¡­", he thought without any emotion leaving his mind. "If they begin evolving in the battlefield¡­ The city will be done for!", he thought as he accelerated his speed even more.

    "Those beasts need to be taken down as quickly as possible.", he thought as part of his mind had attached on the position of the creature that had just mutated. "If I let them to do as they please, they will surely grow like gangrene in a rotten leg!", he mumbled as he entered the hundred meter range of the creature.

    The monster in question was an evolved crocodile. The color of his thick skin was grey, and if he didn''t move, his figure would disappear in the desert background. Thankfully, his body was bloodied, and streams of blood spouted out of the many injuries riddling his massive frame.

    Fell couldn''t but have his senses alert him when gazing at the creature. "It knows that I''m here¡­", mumbled the youth as he took a glance at the black sword clenched by his right hand. He gripped his hand tighter around his sword, and once again turned into the wind as he broke through high friction.

    "Knowing my position won''t change the result. You will still die!", he briskly said as he releases the killing intent he had been building up inside of his sword. A small bomb of pressure was released from the metallic weapon, and the next moment, dozens of creatures were forced to stand still.

    They gazed at the elusive figure that had appeared in grand daylight, apparent fear was plastered on their faces, and they felt as though they couldn''t move a single muscle under the massive killing intent released from his sword.

    "It wants blood!", he thought as his energy coursed through his meridian. With one last heaven breaking steps, he appeared in front of the creature, and managed to saw its physical feature. The crocodile''s body length was more than five meter long, and it''s height rose to a nonnegligible three meter ¡ª almost double of Fell''s size.

    But the youth wasn''t afraid, and in fact, it was quite the contrary as he took another step in a row toward the massive grey crocodile. He noticed the apparent fear in the creature''s eyes, and couldn''t help but recognize that it was regretting its action of mutating in the middle of the battlefield.

    Not only didn''t it turn into a torchlight inside of Fell''s blood detection, giving him her exact location. But the rise in strength that came with her evolution was far from posing trouble to the young cultivator. He stepped twice in a single beat and executed ''Moon Above'' and ''Sun Bellow'' finisher move in one fell swoop.

    His sword turned elusive as he broke through the creature''s defense. The tip of his sword pierced through a massive injury that existed near the creature''s flank, he then immediately pirouetted out of the tail attack unleashed by the monster. And in a fluid motion, right as he evaded the creature''s retaliation, Soldier''s Fortune turned into an intense sun as he unleashed a devastating killing blow on the beast.

    A groan of pain escaped through the creature''s mouth, quickly turning into a roar, as it exhaled one last silent breath. He gazed at the beast with an emotionless expression, that although had turned slightly paler after the energy expenditure still contained stamina.

    "I can sense that a bunch of strong creatures is popping everywhere on the battlefield.", he mumbled as his body began moving toward them. He couldn''t help but take a glance at his arm while feeling his muscles scream from the overexertion.

    Fact was that his body''s resource was nearly void of any resource to consume. Any injury could potentially lead to a fatal complication that might disable the young cultivator, or even kill him. His arm lightly trembled, but an uncaring look was placated on his face, and he ignored it.

    "There is still some juice left in this body of mine.", he thought as he continued fighting regardless of his exhausted state. "A breakthrough can only be found if I continue down this path. Death is only one of the many futures possible!", he thought as he continued taking one step forward after another.

    He began toning down his speed, but his growing proficient at ignoring the restriction of air friction made it that his speed wasn''t reduced by much.

    Hours began passing. Beast fell one after another, and Fell''s state continued deteriorating as he pushed himself to the limit. The body he had relied on all those years was fatally void of any resource for the first time in his cultivator''s life.

    Yet his control of energy had turned fluid, and every wisp of energy he controlled had become silky under his fine soul control.

    "Guess there aren''t many that had awakened their ego body in the first realm of the energy path.", he thought while controlling a wisp of lightning attributed heaven and earth energy. The golden colored wisp twirled around his fingers with a soft and laid back manner.

    "I can develop into an even stronger state!", he thought as he began feeling results from what he had been training the whole day.

    His finger moved, and controlled the golden colored energy that swiftly turned aggressive and darted along his arm toward his other hand that held the sword. He felt the lightning aggressively yet gently brush past his meridian walls, and in the next moment, a golden glow made its way to his sword.

    It was similar to ''Sun Bellow''s attack when he sends heaven and earth energy in bulk toward his sword, turning it into an incandescent light.

    However, now, his sword was akin to a soft candle, lightly trembling with the wind. The golden colored energy shaped itself into tiny saws that seemed to rotate in a reverse clock pattern slowly, but that slowness was only a mirage created by the strange pattern and fast rotation of his lightning based heaven and earth energy.

    Its soft movement was executed with Fell''s control over the spatial energy, helping it contain the hard and aggressive attribute of his lightning based energy.

    His eyes moved, and once again, he disappeared with the wind. Randomly aiming at the strong beast that popped around the battlefield.

 Chapter 259 - Crusade Under The Stary Sky Part Five

    Hours passed, and before long, nightfall made its way in the sky of New Casablanca. It was basking the battlefield riddled with the corpses of the mutated beasts and the fallen MechSuits that had already begun to gather rust due to a large amount of blood that spilled on them.

    Fell couldn''t help but feel his mind freshened by the windy breeze that came with the night. A shiver traversed his body as his thought awakened, he gazed at the silent battlefield and couldn''t help but feel that even with all of his efforts. Too many souls from New Casablanca had left their hometown.

    He couldn''t help but feel bitter as he had indeed done everything in his possibility to save them. But, the outburst of mutation among the north wall caused him to have his hand locked, and the more he slaughtered the beasts, the more human head began falling under their ravenous frenzy.

    It was as if the moment he had started hunting the strongest beasts, he had crossed a line and cornered the creature with their back against a wall. They didn''t hesitate any more and attacked in an all-out frenzy, no longer searching for further mutation, but showing apparent retaliation toward the young cultivator.

    They couldn''t touch a hair from his head, thus they were far from being capable of killing him despite his effort in overexerting himself. The state attained by Fell when he pushed through his limits was a feat to reckon, and had put him in a pedestal far superior to the mutated beast.

    In that state, they could only throw their fearful rage toward the army of MechSuit that was soon overrun by hundreds of strong mutated beasts. Fell did the best he could, and slaughtered them in a relentless craze, not stopping for even a moment. His dantian dried out under the enormous consumption, but he didn''t stop and began using the ambient spatial energy to fill his attack with the might.

    Yet it was far from enough, as it could be seen from the vision that entered his eyes. Moutain of an armored corpse laid in front of the wall, basking under the juice of their engine and the blood that had been coursing through their veins.

    Fell couldn''t help but stood silently on the wall, gazing at the few retreating beasts that had begun darting as soon as the light from daylight began making its way out of New Casablanca. Bitterness flooded his heart, and if it wasn''t for the sword in his hand that helped him control his emotions, he would have since long followed the beasts.

    "I need to recover as soon as possible¡­", he thought as he sat down on the cold floor of the steel wall. His sensed focused on his dantian, and he could only notice the effect of his massive consumption.

    He had consumed nearly every wisp of heaven and earth energy that wasn''t part of his foundation, as it could be seen from Little Gold that had paled noticeably compared to the last time he had checked his condition.

    "Damn, I nearly overdid myself¡­", he thought as he began controlling the surrounding Heaven and Earth energy. His soul turned into numerous silky tentacles that began grabbing the nearby power that delved hidden in space.

    "The energy of the city is too lacking¡­", he noticed that the density of New Casablanca was far from sufficient when it comes to its quality. "A breakthrough in my energy path will be the least possible in my current situation¡­"

    "But refilling my internal batteries shouldn''t be a problem.", he assessed as his body turned a miniature sized black hole that began absorbing the energy existing in a one hundred meter radius of his body.

    As he began filling his dantian, he couldn''t help but have his mind wander about the numerous technique he had trained during the day. As it was only now that he could actually sit and focus on his many discoveries. Dozens of minutes passed, and he noticed the first noticeable upgrade from the day of fighting.

    The focus he had done on his control on his energy had made his absorption smoother, as it made him capable of controlling a more substantial amount of energy than before. "Filling my batteries will actually take less time than what I thought¡­", he mumbled as he saw the organized energy course through his meridians.

    After every refinement, the fine silk of energy would gain the attribute from Little Gold but would still lay softly under his control. The aggressive aspect of his heaven and earth energy that had bothered him through the days ever since he had acquired Little Gold had now been partially solved.

    It was as if he now could smoothly control a racing car without any difficulty. Drifts and hard techniques were still hard for him, but driving without making any mess was already a significant change compared to before.

    An hour passed, and the young cultivator continued sitting on the top of the wall. He could feel that approximatively half of his internal batteries had been filled and decided to stop his massive absorption.

    "If I absorb too much energy, I might dilute part of it.", he thought as his leg produced noise from his movement. He was swiftly back on his legs and couldn''t help but ponder for a split second. "Losing quality is a big no.", he thought as he didn''t want to endanger his energy path further.

    "I still have time before the frenzy blood bath starts among the beasts.", he mumbled as he glanced at his right arm. "I can sense the cheerful emotions coming from it¡­ Is it going to turn sentient if I continue nurturing it like this?", he thought as his figure disappeared from the north part of New Casablanca.

    His figure mixed with the wind as he dashed through the broad path existing on the wall. "I wonder how today had been for the other outposts¡­", he thought as he regretted not being capable of helping the other defensives outposts.

    "I hope the beast didn''t go on rampage¡­", he thought as he could see the west wall in the distance. His leg accelerated as his eyes turned into slits, giving him a better sight in the dark surrounding. He noticed large sized bodies lying on the ground, and among them, also saw shadows of broken MechSuit laying in pools of coagulated blood.

    "The loss seems to be equal¡­", he thought as he didn''t stop in his tracks. His leg continued kicking the ground in a rhythmic pattern, with every step taking him more than dozens of meters. A slight membrane of energy surrounded his body, helping him avoid the friction with the surrounding air.

    Before long, the south defensive outpost appeared in his eyes, and with it came a surprise. The whole battlefield was empty from any corpses, with only a few scraps of flesh and broken metal pieces. "What the hell happened here?", he exclaimed as he felt that the whole area had been scavenged by a crew of piss poor individuals.

    A little bit in the distance, high up on the wall, he noticed a figure sitting on the cold floor of the wall. The character was bloodied and seemed to be on the verge of dying from the many injuries that riddled her body. But the massive blood essence signal entering Fell''s radar clearly told him not to trust his eyes.

    The more he approached, and the more he sensed the dense blood energy. The familiar the figure turned, and before long, he assessed that it was the blood haired man, Akainmhar.

    "He was still alive¡­", he mumbled before doubling his speed with a kick on the floor. "Just like I thought. That bastard is a though bone to bite."

    "Those beasts have more chance chewing a block of cement than on getting this man down.", he thought as he saw the man''s face turned toward his direction.

    The pair recognized each other and silently exchanged a nod as a greeting. Fell came to a stop next to the man, and similarly sat next to him, the next moment a large bottle filled with liquor appeared in his hand.

    Fell raised the bottle high and gulped dozens of mouthful of the robust and spicy liquor before passing the container to the man in front of him. "Quite the rough day.", he mumbled with a slight smile on his lips.

    "Looks like you''ve got quite the gains.", responded Akainmhar with a brisk tone that didn''t hide the profound fatigue he was feeling. He accepted the bottle with one hand and similarly gulped mouthfuls upon mouthfuls of the spicy liquor.

    "You stole those words from my lips.", responded Fell right after him as he received the bottle back.

    A lengthy sigh escaped from his lips, but the red-haired man seemed to have been invigorated by the liquor and, in the next moment, rose to his lips. His hand moved, and he pointed toward a massive shadow laying a few steps away from him.

    "I got something to repay last night''s meal.", he added with a laid back tone.

 Chapter 260 - An Unbreakable Spirit Part One

    Fell''s eyes focused on the small mountain that laid in the shadows, and his nose twitched as he recognized the smell of a creature''s blood.

    "A freshly mutated beast, straight out of today''s battlefield.", Fell said as he rose to his feet and began approaching the creature. As he stepped toward it, his eyes began focusing on it''s a massive figure, and a beast akin to a venison with a massive fork-shaped sharp horn entered his sigh.

    Fell couldn''t help but whistle softly as he understood why Akainmhar picked up such a creature from the battlefield. A mutated herbivore was quite a rarity in the outside world, and he couldn''t help but think that such animal would not only help him recover tremendously but would also be a delicacy that would be hard to find.

    "Nice pick.", he exclaimed Fell as he began approaching the creature''s fork. "Look like it was quite the fierce beast¡­", mumbled Fell as he noticed a broken horn from the side where its neck had been twisted.

    "Yeah, I wanted to make sure there wouldn''t be too much damage in fear of worsening its taste.", he exclaimed with a broad smile.

    "Well, let''s cook this bastard", exclaimed Fell while stepping toward the appetizing looking beast in front of him. His hand caressed the sharp bones on the top part of the creature''s head, and his eyes couldn''t help but light up as he noticed their excessive sharpness.

    He noticed a strange pattern on the bony swords fork horns, and not even a few seconds passed that he already decided to keep the horns. His sword glinted and flew out of its sheath in the direction of the base of the horns. A clean lightning fast fluid motion was executed in a single moment before Soldier''s Fortune reappeared inside of its sheath.

    Akainmhar saw the whole situation without missing a single frame of it. His eyes lit up as he couldn''t help but notice the youth in front of him in a new light.

    "Those are quite the though bone.", he exclaimed as even he had to turn serious to break part of it. Although killing the creature itself didn''t turn out to be a challenge for the red haired gladiator. But the smooth action of Fell cutting the horn caused him to reconsider the youth''s strength.

    Even though he had respected Fell''s strength, he had always thought that he was the senior in terms of power and cultivation. But now, he could see the speed of Fell''s grow, and senses that the youth in front of him wouldn''t take long to transform into a fierce dragon.

    "Got another sword like this?", asked the red haired man with a grin on his lips. "I''ve got nothing to cut this fat crea-", he stopped as his arm moved, his hand caught a sharp glinting object.

    "This will do.", he added as his eyes caught on the knife in his hand.

    The massive horn in front of Fell disappear with a touch from his hand, and the next moment, a similar-looking knife appeared in his hand. And he stepped toward the beast as he began making several incisions all over her massive body.

    A grim expression was on his face, and he analyzed the beast''s morphology to further better his work as he didn''t experiment a lot when it came to skinning animals. It took him a whole minute to finish making incision all over the beast''s body and he stepped toward the creature''s twisted neck.

    He stood on top of it, and judged the position where the blood would flow toward. His arm snapped, and a lightning fast cut was unleashed on the side of the creature''s twisted neck. A second passed, then a spring of warm blood escaped from the creature''s body and began painting the metallic floor red.

    The carcass was being emptied of liters upon liters of blood every few seconds, and before long, the blood began spilling from the side of wall. A metallic smell entered Fell''s nose, and he couldn''t help but sense the purity contained in this blood.

    "Crap, I should have taken this blood. It might have been beneficial for my recovery.", he mumbled as he noticed that blood had stopped flowing.

    "Guess I''ll just do with a little amount of blood in the heart. It might do if it''s purity is high enough.", he thought as his arm moved once again. This time, a thin line had appeared around the whole neck, and the next moment the hornless venison head dropped on the floor with several drops of blood following it.

    He waited for the last bit of blood to flow out from the headless trunk of the creature, and the next moment, he began moving toward one of the many incisions on the beast. He sat near one that he had made on the creature''s hoof, and his lung expanded as he took a big inhale that he soon inhaled inside of the creature''s skin.

    An influx similar to an air propeller entered the space between the creature''s fur and skin, and soon he began pumping the creature''s body. A scene similar to balloon expanding happened till the venison had more than tripled inside.

    Then, Akainmhar saw Fell grab his knife, and his working speed at a lightning speed rate. Several cuts were unleashed in a second, with only the light from his knife appearing in the darkness. And before long, he began taking the deerskin starting from the hooves. His muscles bulged, and the carcass didn''t resist his strength, as the creature''s hairy skin began peeling in few seconds.

    Before long, naked venison sat on what had been its hairy skin. Its ample sized muscles were barehanded, and Fell couldn''t help but move his head in a satisfied manner.

    "A beautiful piece.", he mumbled as his body began moving once again. He separated the animal into many cuts, and organized them on the animal skin in a mechanical manner. It was just the second time he had skinned a beast, but the profound experience he had gathered in the many battlefields field with fierce creatures and animals was something that came out handy.

    A single look on the creature in front of him had been all to understand the necessary step needed to skin the creature. Cutting it into different pieces came down to separating the organs that could be eaten, and taking out the filth out of the evolved being.

    Surprisingly, this creature''s innards organs could all be eaten, as even its stomach was bare. "What a strange beast¡­", mumbled Fell as he noticed the oddities in the disassembled creature in front of him.

    "Now I''m afraid of you.", said Akainmhar as he couldn''t help but be surprised at the youth''s work. His efficiency and focus left him baffled as he knew how difficult it was to disassemble a beast while keeping everything intact.

    "Powerful eyes¡­", he thought as he couldn''t help but once again see the strength of the man in front of him.

    Ten minutes passed, and a small mountains of steaks laid in front of Fell. He couldn''t help but have his stomach released a slight rumble under the tantalizing meat in front of him.

    His hunger inhabited his body, and he continued cooking the food. He unleashed every cooking plate he could find in his spatial pocket and began cooking one cut after another. At some point, he emptied all of the oil he had at hand and began using the butter. He didn''t forget to add salt and pepper in the mix, and before long, a small mountain of what had been the venison laid in massive oiled up plates.

    Before long, a line of bottles appeared close near the animal as they sat on the skin. "Quite the handy treasure.", exclaimed the red haired man with as he grabbed one piece of cooked meat that had been a leg.

    "Yeah, it sure is handy. Although I can probably say the same about your own treasure.", he responded as he began munching on a juicy steak. "You picked up the beast based on its blood essence signal?", he added with difficulty as he continued taking one bite after another of steak.

    His hand grabbed a bottle of liquor, and he took a few sips before releasing a lengthy inhale. He whistled as he moved the cooked heart that stood right in front of him. The tender meat had turned golden under the intensive care of Fell during the cooking preparation.

    A tantalizing and robust odor entered his nostrils, and just from the smell, he nearly tasted the meat that laid in front of his eyes.

    He took three bite in one go on the blood essence filled heart, and couldn''t help but quickly take another one. In a few moments, the big-sized heart had nearly been finished, with only a quarter of it left.

    Fell closed his eyes, and couldn''t help but feel a reinvigorating sensation course through his body as his muscles and organs turned sponges that absorbed every blood essence existing in the heart of the beast.

 Chapter 261 - An Unbreakable Spirit Part Two

    Every cell in his body screamed cheerfully as the effect of the mutated sword venison traveled to his body. A pure stream of blood essence was release with every bite he took, and before long, he could already feel some power start dwelling in his body.

    "The process of recovery has been boosted!", he thought as his face had gained some color. A few minutes passed as his body began digesting the nutritious meal he had taken, and before long, he could feel that part of his strength was once again accessible.

    "Although my body is still weak. I can sense that those days of starvation had made it even more resilient!", he thought as he could feel that his body''s strength had once again grown. The moment his body would ultimately recover, his physical strength would topple his past peak by a significant amount.

    "This is good news!", he thought as he knew that any gain of strength would become important in the coming day. "I can sense that after I fully recover, my body might stand a the pinnacle of body cultivation''s first realm, nearly stepping on the very border of the second realm. Only needing a single step to breakthrough."

    Sensing that the effect of the food was perfect for his damaged body, the young cultivation went on a feeding spree. One rib after another went down his throat, going to the extent of eating even the smoked bone of the creature that contained the nutritious marrow.

    Obviously, he quickly noticed the effect of the bones and decided to boil the spinal cord of the creature to extract the treasure marrow in it.

    An hour passed, and Fell could be seen laying on his back on the soft hairy skin of the creature. Under his intent hunger, he once again surprised the red haired man and ate the whole beast in one sitting. As soon as he had the positive effect it had on his body, and he decided to fill everything down his stomach.

    Nothing was felt, not even the legs or head were left behind as they were cooked over an intense fire that sublimated the meat. And in the end, only the creature''s skin, hooves, and skulls were left intact as Fell didn''t notice a few symbols on those parts of the creature''s body.

    "Seems like you were much more weakened than I thought.", said Akainmhar as he nearly hadn''t touched the food compared to Fell. He could already extract the blood essence from carcass due to his treasure and hadn''t needed to hunt and eat to develop his blood essence ever since he had acquired it.

    "Well, I''m glad you enjoyed my gift. I think I''ve paid my debt, and it is time for me to go participate in tonight''s bloodbath.", he exclaimed in a laid back manner as he even seemed to be cheerful about the event that happened in the nearby mountains at night.

    His crimson-colored eyes glanced at the distance, before turning toward Fell, and especially toward the sword that hung loosely around the belt on his waist. "And I can''t help but feel that you too should participate. At least, your sword shouldn''t miss this opportunity.", he exclaimed before getting on his feet.

    He moved toward the wall, and without turning toward Fell, lifted a hand as a last greeting before jumping outside of the city. His figure turned into a red bullet that pierced through the air before landing three hundred meters away from the wall in one movement. Any movement from him could be sublimated by his powerful physique that had clearly attained the second realm.

    Fell couldn''t see the extent of the man''s cultivation, he hadn''t seen the peak of his strength, but he was sure that it hovered around the peak of the second realm and the mysterious third realm.

    He wasn''t sure about his exact cultivation, but his three cultivation paths made him a fearless foe to anybody as the number of cards, and his versatility made him dangerous in nearly any situation. As a well rounded sword cultivator, Fell was a well rounded individual in almost any of his capabilities and was even advantage when it came to his damage output due to his sword path.

    All in all, he was in the end, also still a growing nascent tree that had only sprouted in the cultivation world a few years ago. He was only a child compared to the peers that stood in his rank of cultivation. With his current advancement, he could already be called a genius at his age, capable of training three cultivation path to the peak of the first realm before he had even celebrated twenty years.

    Fell didn''t take much to decide to follow the red haired man, he stood on his leg, patted his stomach before doing the same with his sword. His facial expression changed as he turned severe; he activated his blood detection and expanded its range to the maximum distance he could achieve.

    His face noticeably paled as he overexerted his ego body''s focus. Before long, droplets of sweat had accumulated on his forehead, and on his mind, a mental map had been created due to his effort. And a sea of red had appeared on the darkness of his thought, and he couldn''t help but feel five shining suns in the distance.

    Their ominous and pure power shone with a darkness that made Fell resent going near them. It was as thought his body was telling him that he wasn''t ready to confront them. He chooses a place where the poisonous aura existed far from any of those five monstrosities, and he also jumped out of the wall, his figure blended with the wind as he turned into an invisible bullet that silently pierced through the air.

    He landed without making any noise a few hundred meters away from the massive wall, even gliding the last seconds of his jump, before turning toward the direction he had chosen and darted in the distance.

    "I''ll have to tread carefully as their strength will rose once again this night.", he thought as his breathing pattern changed. His presence disappeared the further he advanced toward the ominous mountains. Before long, a dark forest appeared in front of his eyes; he crossed it while moving through the trees.

    And before long, somewhere past the middle of the forest, he felt that he had entered the zone where the poisonous aura existed. His right arm moved as his hand clenched Soldier''s Fortune handle. Then, he stepped inside of the toxic atmosphere without any hesitation; not even a few seconds passed that a flood of killing intent was born in his ego body.

    He couldn''t help, but an absorption vortex appear near his right palm, and the next moment, every wisp of killing intent he created was swiftly absorbed inside of Soldier''s Fortune. He continued walking as he felt that the place didn''t contain enough of the poisonous aura that could help him strengthen his sword.

    He continued moving from one tree to another as he further delved deep inside of the forest, and before long, he arrived in front of massive tree that contained a tremendous amount of dark energy. "Crap¡­ I thought I had avoided those five''s position¡­", he thought as he nearly turned back, but he chooses to only stop in his track.

    He carefully observed the humongous tree from a distance with curiosity laying bare in his eyes. He executed his blood detection, and tried sensing the blood essence of the massive tree, but he was surprised to find that he couldn''t detect it. He could only feel that a strong and ominous blood essence akin to the five most powerful creatures, more powerful than anything else from the beast wave.

    "This tree has developed blood essence¡­", he thought as he couldn''t help but be surprised from the discovery. "This might end up quite beneficial for me!", he thought as his eyes lit up, but he still didn''t take a step.

    "How the hell can I face a creature of this size¡­ I can''t just hope that it''s inoffensive as its not one of those five¡­", his face showed the internal struggle he was facing. As he couldn''t sense the danger lying ahead if he adventured near the tree, his gain could be massive, but would the loss he would trade for those will be worth it.

    He stood immobile for more than a few seconds. Even the clarity given by his sword didn''t help him as he was genuinely hesitant on the matter in front of him.

    "I need to be decisive in time like these.", he mumbled softly as he took a step forward toward the massive tree that had taken root a few hundred meters in front of him.

    His steps turned into two, before he jumped to a nearby tree. He repeated those actions several times and cautiously arrived at the base of the massive tree.

 Chapter 262 - An Unbreakable Spirit Part Three

    His steps didn''t even make any vibration on the branches he stood on, and even jumping would only leave a minute shiver in the place where he would have risen from. He approached the Gigantic Tree with cautious in his steps, and though the minute that past, the distance separating him was only a few dozens meter.

    Sweat appeared on his forehead, and as he approached the tree, he couldn''t help but feel the tension building up in the surrounding of the humongous tree. The dark energy contained the creature had begun influencing its surroundings, turning them more vibrant with a definite boost of blood essence.

    Yet the same amount of poisonous atmosphere was still present in the area. Plants wouldn''t miss any blood that spilled on their soil, and a few could even directly attack. But Fell didn''t know any of that, and he could be seen soon entering a range where even the trees nearby the Gigantic Tree had their form changed, clearly warped by the incredible life energy gathering nearby.

    Fell couldn''t help but stop in his track the moment he landed on one of those warped trees. He couldn''t help but focus on the bark of wood in front of his eyes, and he soon notices a strange wisp of blood essence flowing along the thick tree. "There doesn''t seem to be any negative effect on the nearby vegetation¡­", he thought as he continued down the path in front of him.

    From one tree to another, he soon arrived in an area bare of any tree that surrounded the tree. Its radius was of a few meters, and Fell didn''t hesitate as he landed on the patch of green grass that had grown out of the soil. Fell couldn''t help but glance at the tree in front of him, he felt the influx of killing intent sent to his sword strengthen as he began moving closer to the Gigantic Tree''s massive base.

    It''s circumference was such as it needed twenty individuals to surround it. Fell couldn''t help but raise his neck as he didn''t stop walking toward the brown colored base of the tree. A short whistle escaped from his lips as he couldn''t help but notice the height of the humongous sized tree.

    He approached it, and noticed vivid color flashing on the surface of the tree bark. And before long, stood right next to it, he hesitated for a long time before finally extending his hand to make contact with the Gigantic Tree. He closed his eyes as he focused his senses on his hand, and in the next moment, he sent a massive influx ramming the inside of the tree.

    His soul power flooded the interior of the massive tree, and invaded its interior as he began swimming inside of the Gigantic Tree. Seconds pasted as Fell continued sending a large amount of enormous soul power inside of the tree, and after a minute passed, his face paled considerably, but he chooses nonetheless to continue with gritted teeth.

    "I can sense the origin of this powerful energy.", he thought as he couldn''t help but notice something. "I can feel that there is striking purity hidden among the sun of darkness that layered it!", he thought with an unsightly expression on his face. "What the hell is this tree!?", he thought as he couldn''t help but find the location strange.

    "It had been right in an angle where every one of those five could come up to at an equal distance!?", he thought as the color of his face changed. His crystal clear thought couldn''t help but create some hesitation as the influx of soul power he was sent down the tree stopped for a second.

    Beads of sweat had accumulated on his face as he couldn''t help but shiver slightly from the short yet intense overexertion. He closed his eyes for a second, and couldn''t help but fall in deep thought as multiple theories appeared in his mind. A minute passed, and he felt that it was time to decide whether he would leave or stay.

    His hand once again approached the massive tree''s solid bark. Nothing happened for a few seconds as he gathered soul energy in his soul palace, and the next moment, a tiny ball of condensed soul power flashed through his hand as it entered the tree without facing any restriction.

    It entered it and immediately went down toward the Gigantic Tree''s root. The tiny condensed ball went straight down in a thick root of the tree before exploding in one big bang that releases every wisp of soul power existing inside of the tiny condensed ball. Every shred of soul power released from the ball flew toward the many paths living in the thick root that had split under their leg.

    Fell''s face changed as he received the distorted influx of information through the many soul power wisps that flew down the many roots with the might of small shrapnel from a grenade. It could a few second for fell to get used to it as the effect he received had been shaken him quite a bit.

    It was as if a small amount of himself have detached and turned into small bullets he would have shot down a tunnel. The sensation made him nearly lose his balance, but he swiftly got used to it after a few seconds as he began focusing on the influx of information he was receiving.

    He soon noticed that one of those soul wisps had ricochet on a corner and was making his way upward the tree. It rose in a straight path, and Fell focused part of his senses on it as he could feel it was going in the direction of the source of the tree''s energy. A minute passed, and his soul bullet had already made their way quite a distance from the Gigantic Tree, he soon noticed a peculiar scene.

    Bright wisps of blood essence were making their way through the root of the tree. The moment Fell noticed that he focused on the location of the numerous wisps of soul power, and in a split second, his expression changed.

    "This tree is connected to everything in an incredibly large radius!", he thought before feeling the tremendous pressure five of his bullet was facing. "Those are coming from the area where those five are dwelling.", he thought in a split second before sensing his other soul wisp.

    "Those are clearly coming from grounds with bloodbath ongoing right now!", he added as his face paled the more he thought.

    "This is a danger! This tree is one hundred percent a treasure that is protected or eyed by those five!", he thought as he couldn''t help but begin sweating from his back.

    "What should I do!?", he asked himself in panic as he didn''t know if his presence had been noticed. My wisps of soul had made their way close to them. If they felt it and began moving right at the moment, then I have less than one minute to either leave or investigate the tree."

    He could either choose to stay and look for the source of the energy inside of the tree then take it. Or safely flee away in a laid back manner that wouldn''t endanger him. But he couldn''t quickly choose between one of those two options and lost ten seconds in indecisiveness. Ten seconds that he would later regret not having used.

    "What is the best course of action¡­", he thought as his sight blanked for a second. "I''ll take it and leave, now!?", he mumbled before coming back to his senses. He cut the transmission of information stop from the soul wisp, and he couldn''t help but stop for a second as he felt those wisps turn to disappear into the void.

    He put his hand on the tree bark and sat down in a lotus position before closing his eyes. He needed to be fast but also needed to focus if he wanted to succeed in retrieving whatever existed in the tree in one go. "I will go myself!", he thought as he took control of his ego body before attempting to leave his body.

    "Thankfully, this isn''t directly outside of my body, but will be akin to a transfer toward the inside of the tree.", he mumbled as the expression of his ego body turned unsightly. A flash of purple light flew out of the veined hole that existed inside of his head- swiftly flew through Fell''s body- and left his arm and entered the tree.

    An odd sensation traversed Fell as he felt the change of material. And the next moment, he found looking at the inside of the tree with crystal clarity. Its massive height made it as if Fell had entered an enormous tower. Steps didn''t appear under his legs as he began floating toward the peak of the tree.

    From the distance, he felt that his body had been perturbed by the sudden disappearance of his ego body, but could sense that there was no significant danger happening.

 Chapter 263 - An Unbreakable Spirit Part Four

    Noticing that he could support the environment inside of the tree, he focused on the searching for the source of the Gigantic Tree pure power. His ego body hovered inside of the base of the tree, and he began ascending through the tree as he followed the route his soul wisp had found.

    "This sensation is too odd.", he thought as he felt his ego body move from one layer of the tree to another. The change in the structure he was in didn''t bother his ascension as he was moving through the tree itself. Seconds passed as he felt the difficulty of maintaining his ego body outside of his body.

    As the distance between them was separated, he couldn''t help but feel as though the link between them was stretched further. With each meter, he moved away, that link would be thinned and the danger of its rupture raising once again. This whole act had been done in an instinctive way, and he didn''t know the actual risks of releasing his ego body in the outside world.

    Time ticked as he moved higher and higher through the thick branches of the tree, and before long, he felt the source of power he had sensed through his volatile soul wisps.

    "I need to go faster!", he thought as he rose his speed the moment he sensed its energy. The further he moved from his body, the higher he was alert as he wasn''t ready to lose his life. If it wasn''t for the fact that he didn''t sense any creature nearby, he wouldn''t have dared to do such a risky maneuver.

    He couldn''t feel his heartbeat while in possession of his ego body, but his keen sense and the inexplicable link made it such as he knew the condition of his physical bodies. However, he could hear a specific type of heartbeat coming from the inside of the tree.

    The sound was loud and reverberated through every inch of wood that made the tree. Fell couldn''t but feel as though he stood in the middle of a gigantic bell. But the discomfort came with a high price as the sound was coming from the origin of power existing inside of the Gigantic Tree.

    What had caused the humongous tree to grow to its size was quietly laying dormant inside of it, unaware that an ego body was making way toward it. Fell couldn''t help but think that the source of power wasn''t sentient as he had already sent a massive amount of soul energy inside of the tree.

    His intention had been marked explicit, and he was sure that the tree couldn''t cause any damage to him. He continued making his way through the tree with a resolute expression on his ego body''s face. During this time, in an area outside of the city, the red haired man was making his way through a sizeable deserted area.

    He moved one step at a time as he absorbed the latent blood essence coming from the many carcasses surrounding him. Every second that passed made his strength burst out of his body and his figure turned into an incarnation of a war god as a flashy red glow escaped from his pore.

    Just the light coming from his blood essence was strong and pure to the point where it had a substance, akin to a liquid. The direction of his step was evident as he followed the route that leads to one of the five strongest entities that led the beast wave.

    Sadly, his mind wasn''t wholly defended from the poisonous atmosphere, and had slowly been corroding his thought. His body moved mechanically as he searched for the strongest beast nearby. An hour passed, and he couldn''t help but feel that those puny beast weren''t enough for the advancement he was looking for.

    He needed a stronger, more evolved beast to strengthen his body and martial might further. Those puny evolved beasts had barely a strength equal of peak of the first step cultivator and were barely enough to fill the empty space between his teeth. It was due to this that he began making his way toward the strongest blood essence signal he had picked.

    His steps made their way through the barren land existing a few hundred meter nearby a mountain. A few beasts dared to cross his path once again, but a simple move was enough to take down as he left their corpse rotting, void of any blood essence.

    Soon, he arrived at the base of the mountain with a blank expression on his face. He hesitated for a second before a vicious expression flashed on his face. His stepped forward, the ground under his leg creaked and splintered as the weight of Akainmhar''s advance contained a full fledge provocation toward the strong entity residing in those mountains.

    The earth continued splitting in half as Akainmhar''s strength spilled out of his body, forming a web of dense blood essence that invaded the ground under his leg. The vibration released from his step shook the base of the mountain with an unexpected ferocity that made the earth tremble.

    But that wasn''t the end, he took another step as his blood essence spiked even more. His skin reddened as his hair rose in the air, the air surrounding him clapped as he took the third step without any pause in his momentum. Torrent of blood essence was released from the red haired man as he unlocked the entirety of his cultivation base.

    His height changed as he grew to a towering two meters size, and his shoulders turned wider as his muscles bulged with power. His physical body morphed into a towering figure that oozed of power. He stood in place, waiting for the entity''s arrival with the explicit intention of fighting.

    He had released everything and showed the full extent of his physical body right at the start. If Fell had been here, he would have noticed the incredible energy released from the red haired man. One that stood nearly on the third step of cultivation, a true hegemonic figure in the small interstellar nations.

    Not even ten seconds passed, as Akainmhar received the response of the invitation he had sent to the entity. A horrifying roar washed through space, forming a tidal wave that cleared the area surrounding the small mountain. Akainmhar stood tall in front of the shock wave caused by the roar that slapped his towering figure; the red haired man didn''t budge an inch.

    He waited a few seconds before stepping ahead before coming to a stop in the middle of his advance. Minute vibration was picked up by his ears as his eyes turned into slits, his fist tightened slightly as he lowered his center of gravity before waiting.

    He prepared himself as he could feel that the entity was making its way toward him. Its speed fast to the point where he could hardly think of another figure that could keep up with its speed.

    Seconds passed as he accumulated strength in his powerful body, his right fist had tightened entirely as he began sending a huge amount of blood essence toward it. He readied himself for the confrontation as his senses could only roughly identify the entity''s position.

    His massive killing intent gathered outside of his body, sharpening his senses as he knew that any mistake could be fatal against an unknown opponent of this caliber.

    He heard ruffles in a few trees in the distance, and he even saw a few tree in front of him rumbled before turning to pieces. His knee lowered drastically as he took a low stance. The muscles in the lower half of his body bulged twice in size in a split second, securing him a solid footing.

    His waist began moving as his right arm began unfurling a straight punch. A simple movement, backed with his incredible physique, released the tremendous potential of human martial art.

    The rotation produced by the movement made by his waist, feet, and back was perfectly linked as a humongous strength was generated by the lightning fast perfect execution of the red haired man. He didn''t only release the full might of his physical power, but had also released his refined martial arts at the beginning of the fight.

    Just as the creature appeared, dashing on two legs with well defined strong and explosive leopard like muscles. A head was hidden behind a mechanical mask, but that the red haired man could only gaze at for a second as he release his fist.

    Light flashed as his fist flattened the air in front of it, turning it into a compact bullet of pressure that streaked toward the unknown creature.

    His movements had flowed with a smoothness akin to water flow. His perfect timing made it such as his hit connected the moment the entity appeared, sending it straight back from where it had come.

    Once again, the first to move was the red haired man who took tree step in one motion. Each step took him more than dozens of meter as he followed the entity in a relentless pursuit.

 Chapter 264 - An Unbreakable Spirit Part Five

    Fell wasn''t aware of the actions orchestrated by the red haired man. His mind couldn''t think at all that he would go challenge one of those five entities. The strength and purity of their blood essence alone had laid a shadow in Fell''s heart and had already made him choose to avoid them.

    "Unless I really have two. I have to avoid confronting them directly if I ever meet them here; I''ll just run away from them.", he thought as he continued flying through the path existing inside of the tree. He felt as though his soul was moving through a long tunnel, with a soft light extending toward him in the distance.

    "I hope I didn''t die¡­", he mumbled as he felt that the irony of the scene he was in. "Gotta continue!", he thought as he tried raising his speed. But it only rose by a thin margin, as he couldn''t completely exert the strength of his ego body without the soul palace.

    "According to this speed, it will take more than five minutes to arrive at the top¡­", he thought as he couldn''t find any way to solve his problem. "Time is of essence in this place¡­", he mumbled with a low tone as he didn''t stop his movement at any moment. "Time¡­" he mumbled as he continued thinking deep while advancing toward the origin of power of the Gigantic Tree.

    "How do I augment my speed¡­", he continued mumbling as he focused part of his thought on the problem at hand. "What If I try to use the spatial scripture?", he thought before hesitating as it could end up dangerous.

    He remembered the last time he had used the technique, and specifically, he remembered the sensation of the seal incorporating with his ego body. Compared to before, he had felt closer to the surrounding space by a hundredth time for a few seconds, and had accomplished the feat of moving his whole body through space.

    "I don''t know how strong the effect will be, but If I''m afraid of making contact with the outside world will be a fatal error. My guts are telling me that this is what I must avoid the most in this state.", his face turned resolute as he calculated the risk of his future action. When risk was calculated, then the danger would lessen as the outcomes could be expected.

    However, Fell didn''t know much but nonetheless decided to try as a few more seconds gained could mean security or danger for him. He closed his ego body''s eyes as he began focusing on drawing the symbol in his mind, a few seconds passed, and he finished on his first try. He reopened his eyes, and his hand moved as he began drawing the character he had drawn earlier.

    The finger of his ego body glinted a pure purple color as the spatial scripture was drawn on thin air. It laid softly in the middle of the long dark tunnel without making any reaction, then after a few seconds passed, a bright, colorful flash of light escaped from it then.

    Fell extended his hand toward the scripture, and the character swiftly flew to his attack. It entered Fell''s ego body as it released the power of the spatial scripture through every inch of it. The color of the ego body''s eyes changed as they turned deep dark colors similar to the void outside of the atmosphere.

    He willed for his body to warp closer toward the source of power. His body blinked as he seemingly entered another layer of space, and he reappeared further up in the long tunnel inside of the tree. His eyes glowed in the dark, the somber change given by the spatial scripture gave him a horrific gaze.

    "I can''t judge the distance accurately inside of the tree, but I can feel that the source of power is closer than my early position.", he thought before once again blinking through space. His ego warped out of the void as he reappeared in the distance, a smile appeared on his face as he sensed that the seal still contained strength.

    "With one character absorption, I can sense that I''m capable of blinking five times¡­", he thought as he once again reused the power of the spatial scripture. "It might be due to special circumstance that I''m capable of blinking through space", he thought as he referred to the fact that he was only controlling his ego body.

    His figure continued climbing through the massive tree. Time ticked as he quietly approached the position of the Gigantic Tree''s source of power. His presence was unknown by all through the five entities, or by the many creatures under him ¡ª a clear contrast to the red haired man who was currently facing one of the five entities.

    It didn''t take long for the other four to notice the disturbance as they had a means of communication between them. However, Akainmhar didn''t give a single thought about this possibility as he was sure about his survival capacities. The full extent of his cultivation was at the peak of the second realm of body cultivation, and aided with his treasure he didn''t find it it difficult to begin the fight with a strong tempo.

    Right after the first fist that sent the entity hurling away, he had followed up with dozens of physical attack that sent the creature flying through the small sized mountain. His red haired danced in the wind as he turned into an explosive fiery wisp from a distance, blinking from one spot of the mountain to another.

    It had been less than a minute that he had engaged the man. From the first attack he had sent, to the last one he had executed, he had taken his time to analyze the entity in front of him. It''s size, weight, the texture of skin, density, and volume were quickly picked up by the keen eyed martial artist.

    "Strong!", he thought as he was aware that the numerous attack he had executed had only scratched the entities'' skin. A skin smooth, yet hard, as though covered by a thick chitin armor that kept everything under it safe.

    "I''ve never met such type of species¡­", he mumbled as he took a step forward. Stomping strongly on the ground, he executed another martial fist technique that he transmuted into a grappling technique in one fluid motion. The experienced fighter showed his value as soon as the fight began, taking advantage of the entity that couldn''t breathe or even react in the split-second action.

    "Those eyes¡­", noticed the red haired man as he saw the sharpness hidden in it. "I''m beginning to annoy it!", he thought as his speed rose to the limit. He stepped twice, and executed a pirouette than ended in a roundhouse kick that didn''t fail to connect with the creature''s jaw.

    The red haired man lunched forward, with the intent of continuing his relentless advance, but his body suddenly came to a stop. His facial expression changed as he sensed the pressure that surrounded his body; it materialized to the point where it had blocked any physical movement.

    It was as in front of the entity in front of him. He didn''t have the right qualification to move in front of it. A shiver traversed his spine as he saw a mysterious scene unfurl in front of him.

    A strange mumble escaped from the entity''s armor, and the next moment the low and silent word transformed into a powerful intent that turned into a tidal wave. Akainmhar''s face twitch as the entity''s vague mumble turned into words in his mind.

    "You fought well, Human."

    "But this just isn''t your day. You had many years to come to further your cultivation, but you had chosen to end your life by fighting us."

    "Especially with that kind of treasure inside of your body!", Akainmhar felt an evil intent pressure him on every corner of his body. A suffocating sensation assaulted him as he felt his soul imprisoned inside of a veil of soul power.

    Akainmhar trembled roughly as thought he was having a seizure, and before long, his body''s movement came to a silent. His boiling heart slowed down as he began feeling his will seep out of his body, he knew that in the next milliseconds, his consciousness would fade away.

    "Ignite!", he activated the strongest card he had. The treasure lying dormant in his treasure released a powerful red light as blood essence began filling the red haired man''s vein. The next moment, it was as if matches were thrown on gasoline. Every single speck of blood essence color changed as its color turned vivid.

    It was as if each of his blood essences was turning into a miniaturized sun. The temperature surrounding the red haired man rose as his body released waves upon waves of scorching heat. His heartbeat sped as it released a loud and deep sound through the silent surrounding; his eyes focused as he gazed at the entity standing in front of it.

    His glaring red gaze expressed everything he wanted to say, clearly despising everything it had said.

 Chapter 265 - Shining Gale Part One

    A roar escaped from his throat as he raised his head toward the gloomy sky of the night. His hair was thrown in disarray as his blood essence fiber turned agitated in a split second. Every tissue of muscles existing in his body thinned as every parcel of his strength was released in one go.

    "I rarely use this move.". A deep voice, nearly audible, escaped from his lips as he glanced at the humanoid entity in front of him. "Do you best in lasting in front of it.", he finished as his pride as a cultivator formed through his many years of practice was apparent in his tone.

    He lunged forward, breaking through the pressure released by the entity in an effortless manner. He jumped deeply ahead as he kicked toward the ground under his leg. The field under his leg blew out in a proportionate way to the speed his body attained.

    A large cloud of dust rose before disappearing due to the small pieces of rock that had turned into shrapnel. Not even a second after that, a deep and acute noise akin to a canon shell hitting a steel-plated wall resounded through the mountain. Akainmhar exhaled a fiery breath after having sent the entity in the distance with a powerful and lightning fast lariat.

    He stepped forward once again as he lunged toward the entity''s figure that was flying in the distance as though it was a kite. He crossed the distance and reappeared right over him in a spinning form. His body flipped naturally as a powerful kick unfurled toward the humanoid entity that moved the moment Akainmhar had chased it.

    Her arm moved as she unleashed a broad swipe with the long claws existing in her hands, the attack was aimed at the red haired man''s Achilles'' tendon.

    A wide smile appeared on the red haired man as his body continued rotation, he fainted a kick, having already predicted the creature''s reaction. Just as the creature''s broad swipe finished, the humanoid entity couldn''t help but feel as though a massive thick pillar had collided with her face.

    An enormous weight accompanied the red haired man''s attack, but that strong momentum behind the attack wasn''t in line with its destructive nature. It slipped seamlessly through her strong physical defense before exploding and erupting inside of her body. Her thick skull trembled as though a small grenade had been thrown inside of it, visible shacking for a split second before the momentum of the attack spread to the rest of the entity''s body.

    The shining armored surrounding the creature''s body protected it from the rough impact it had with the ground, the sharp pair of eyes that weren''t hidden by the armor were shaking as they described the intense pain it was feeling.

    No roar, no sound was made by the creature''s vocal cord as his first move damaged them. The devastating impact caused by the lariat had left the humanoid beast only capable of sighting a silent hollow whisper.

    Even with having ignited his blood essence, his refined and diverse fighting style didn''t change as his attack acquired a destructive component due to his unique blood technique.

    The ground didn''t resist the entity''s dense body as it plunged deeply in it, quickly attaining dozens of meters of dept before it came to a stop for a split second. Just as the entity moved, it saw that the red haired man was already standing in front of it. The light from the soft moon couldn''t make its way down the tunnel, but even in the darkness, Akainmhar''s red hair danced softly as his skin glowed a bright red.

    A second passed, and both of them disappeared from the scenery.

    As the only thing left in the scene was a hole made in the mountain. And the large crater where Akainmhar had stood.

    What was incredible about the place were Akainmhar had stood before was that the surface of the ground that had made contact with his feet was left untouched, a feat left by the remnant of the control the red haired man had on his strength.

    "Who are you!?", the entity''s asked as it couldn''t understand the man''s strength. "How did someone this strong happen to be here?!", he asked as he couldn''t understand how the man in front of him had attained this incredible level.

    The red haired man brushed the invading intent as if it was thin, and only gazed at the red entity''s eyes for a second before his lips moved to form a sly grin. Akainmhar stepped forward, and once, unleashed hell upon the armored humanoid body.

    Her chitin like armor stood solid in front of the red haired man''s attack, but sadly, every attack that left his body easily brush past the armored defense.

    The entity couldn''t help but usher a broken roar as it couldn''t support the grating sensation of the attack exploding inside of its own body. Although her bones, and inner organs were solid enough to help those shocks. The pain that came with it was bone grating and made it want to kill the man in front of it.

    And it tried, but each time the fight turned into hand to hand combat, the red haired man would always come up victors. His technique, numerous and versatile, were accompanied with the raging power coursing through his being.

    Akainmhar hurled a series of lightning fast punch on the entity that didn''t leave it any frame of time to reciprocate. The red haired man''s momentum pushed forward in a relentless and unstoppable manner, even with his lightning fast attack, his complex tempo didn''t make any of his attack readable.

    In the middle of the earth, the pair fought as they created one tunnel after another with their mighty bodies. Nothing could stop their humongous frames that passed through the solid brown rock as though it was soft mud.

    The red haired man felt as though a fire delved in his thoracic cage, each breathe would make his throat turned fiery, and even his saliva felt as though it had turned into saliva. Those sensation didn''t cause him pain as they had been dulled by the many years of experience he had with body cultivation.

    To execute heaven defying technique, especially with the body path, one would have to put their body in the most surreal states. Oozing sweat that would instantly disappear could be surprising enough, but the red haired man had already evolved past that as even his own perspiration could resist the incredible temperature he exuded.

    "I don''t know what you are doing on Earth. But, I''ll make sure that you scram as soon as possible!", Using different mean the red haired man reproduced the same effect as the mysterious entity. He transfered his thought through a blast of blood essence that turned the tons upon tons of rock thirty meters surrounding them into dust.

    Over them numerous rocks of different sizes and shape began falling. A few glinted in the dark from the numerous mineral they contained.

    The entity took a step back, her leg flinched as the ground under it turned into dust. Her eyes were locked on the red haired man advancing toward her direction, and the entity couldn''t understand how the mysterious man was leading the tempo.

    Not only could it feel that the strength in her body was amply sufficient to take him down. But he leads the fight from the first action entirely. Its instinct told it that it should retaliate and kill him as soon as possible. But the deep grating pain was felt through her body over and over, making it resent the idea of approaching him.

    It knew that the technique used by the red haired man was a boost-type technique. They would usually come with harsh backlash and were typically short in their duration time.

    After a few exchanges, the humanoid''s mind was hell-bent on avoiding direct confrontation. Her strongest asset, outdone by the penetrative aspect of Akainmhar''s attack.

    The entity felt her body began falling, her muscles crisped as it once again saw the red haired man approach. Her arm moved as it tried storing strength in it in an attempt to retaliate, determination flashed on the pair of sharp eyes.

    "I might not be capable of breaking that thick shell alone, but with you so enclined on helping.", the red haired man intent spread in the underground cave they have to build due to their fight underground.

    His figure turned into a red bolt of lightning that broke through space as it appeared near one of rock, he twisted his leg on the wall of rock next to him as he once again turned into a red streak that sped toward the falling entity.

    Everything might have taken some time to describe, but the action happened in a split second, and the falling rocks had even blocked the sight of the entity.

    "It ain''t that hard.", his intent spread as the sound released from a bone breaking echoed in the small underground cave. The red haired man could be seen grappling the strange entity, her arm bending in a way it shouldn''t normally have.

 Chapter 266 - Shining Gale Part Two

    The pair fell toward the ground of the underground cave created by Akainmhar''s attack. Their figures disappeared among the many falling rocks, as though the massive earth had turned into water that began filling any void existing inside of it.

    The size of the rock falling under them rose as a massive brouhaha spread from the sound made by the falling rocks. Their figures disappeared under the humongous and suffocating size that was falling their way.

    Akainmhar''s deep voice spread as a burst of laughter escaped from his throat. He coughed before grabbing the humanoid in a deadly embrace of a close-quarter fight. A few seconds passed as their figures disappeared under the warm suffocating embrace of the earth.

    A few kilometers away, the situation was completely dangerous as there wasn''t any movement near the Gigantic Tree. The black forest laid quietly in the dark, without any sound leaving its inside except the soft ruffle of the many yellow leaves.

    One would only look at the many trees with one look to determine that the growth had been induced only recently; the color of the leaves, a clear show of the price they paid. All of it was the work of the Gigantic Tree that had been ordered to infest and conquer every inch of the grounds surrounding it.

    With enough time, it could gain the massive grounds of New Casablanca. With its mysterious power, it would give back its life to its soil. And before long, New Casablanca and its surroundings would have both turned into a massive sea of green jungle, with tree brushing with life as the Gigantic Tree would have acted as their life source.

    The Gigantic Tree could be considered as a king among vegetation, an entity that would give and take from the numerous living vegetation in it would have taken root in.

    But here, it had been used to gather the thick liters of blood essence through the many kilometers it had spread its root to. And with its pure source of power backing her action, it didn''t take long for the Gigantic Tree to take control of the whole area surrounding New Casablanca.

    Fell didn''t know any of that as his thought was focused on flying toward the source of power. Thankfully, he didn''t meet any defense from the inside of the tower-like tree.

    With every spatial transportation, he would execute, he could feel that he was getting closer to the source of power. His eyes brightened with excitement as he once again began drawing the spatial script''s character he knew.

    His finger moved skillfully as part of his ego body detached, and glistening tiny stars that served as a source of the character. A few seconds was all it took for Fell to execute the action, and just as he was nearly done with his focused work. Part of sight disappeared as he blanked and gazed at the void in front of him for a few seconds.

    The glistening stars that had assembled to form the seal began disintegrating, and the next moment, they fell apart slowly as the whole character began turning into the void.

    A tremendous pain shook Fell''s soul as he felt the drawback of his constant usage. He felt as though small parts of himself were disintegrating, and an intense sadness shook his being as he felt memories of his past disappear.

    He couldn''t even have the luxury of panicking as his whole soul was having a seizure due to the abuse from Fell. The uneasiness that came from being apart of his body and soul palace showed as his ego body began palling slowly.

    Part of his ego body turned into miniature stars as they flew away in a bright manner before disappearing in the void. Fell stood in place, and his face shook as he was traversed with waves upon waves of soul-searing pain.

    He couldn''t speak, but he cursed in his mind as he knew that he had inadvertently caused a dangerous phenomenon on his ego body. Something that no soul cultivation would have ever wanted feeling. He could feel part of himself detach from himself with every second that passed, as even the action of moving turned into something impossible.

    Time ticked, as the young cultivator began paying the price of his greedy action. He found himself with only way action of survival in this situation, overcome the horrid pain that he felt through the entirety of his soul and proceed toward the Gigantic Tree''s source of power.

    A few seconds passed as he only hovered a little up higher, a far sight from what he could accomplish before. "This won''t work¡­", he thought as he felt that he was being cornered by the ongoing event. In a split second, his ego body had fallen in a state of life or death and had already begun the process of disintegration.

    Fell tried to work through the pain, even with his mind blanking out, he tried to gather his ego body''s energy and to ease the process of destruction. "Should I abandon?", he thought as he didn''t know if his ego body could support the travel to his physical body.

    Even in this state, where his emotion was flowing in an outburst, and as his memory was turning into dust. A clear expression appeared on his ego body''s face as he began mumbling the Soul Method''s mantra in a low tone.

    The soul grating pain in his mind eased slightly as he felt as though a fresh cooling breeze was spreading through his thought. A few seconds passed, and a noticeable effect appeared as his ego body began disintegrating at a slower rate.

    "I can''t continue like this¡­". He thought as he turned around, giving his back to the road that led to his physical body. He knew that any blessing would come in pair with a calamity. "Overcome it!", he mumbled as his eyes glowed in the dark tunnel. His chilling eyes gazed at the light in the distance with a fiery intent of conquest.

    He needed the Gigantic Tree''s source of power for survival. He didn''t care anymore about the danger of the five entities or the safety of New Casablanca, but about the pain, his soul was traversing, and about the danger he was facing.

    "There is only one path toward survival!", he thought as he lifted his arm. Part of his ego body parted away as they turned into a bright glistening material that used began drawing with.

    His eyes were chilling cold despite the searing pain he was feeling, and his arm would tremble nonstop as he drew. Even with a trembling arm, his finger soon finished drawing the spatial script''s character under his intense focus.

    The rate at which he was losing part of his soul rose during the process, but he instantly began mumbling the soul method mantra given by Anzar. A cooling and refreshing sensation arose in his thought as his ego body turned more compact in an attempt to slow down the rate of his disintegration once again.

    "I can definitely continue!", he thought as he eye glinted in front of the dark path ahead. He clasped his hand around the spatial scripture that seamlessly entered it, filling it with power affiliated to the laws of space.

    He took one step forward, and space opened in front of him as he seamlessly moved closer to his goal. He immediately checked the state of his body as he reappeared, and heaved a sigh of relief when he noticed that his ego body could endure it.

    He stepped thrice in a row, blinking through space in a mean to speed his travel toward the source of power. Even with his effort, the constant loss of his soul parts turned him weaker as each step would cause his face to turn grimmer.

    When he took the fourth and last spatial step of the character, his facial expression was unsightly, and he gritted his teeth through the whole process. Nonetheless, he succeeds in his attempt and even exceeded the range of his other spatial steps as he juiced out every bit of space law existing in the glyph.

    A sparkling burst of stars erupted from his back as his ego body trembled when ending the fourth spatial step. The moment he appeared in a similar-looking place of the large tree, he felt a change in the surrounding pressure as a powerful red morbid light shone in the distance.

    Fell saw the ominous light and couldn''t help but once again have a huge loss of his soul part that nearly caused him to blank out. He focused himself as his vision spun, turning his sight into a nauseating field. Seconds passed as Fell religiously mumbled the mantra of the soul method to gather his soul back.

    It was with an immense difficulty that he stopped the massive ''injuries'' appearing over his ego body. But it was as though the flow of loss couldn''t be reduced to how it was due to new pressure surrounding Fell. "Crap¡­", he mumbled before his hand shook and began moving forward.

    Once again, drawing the character of the spatial scripture.

 Chapter 267 - Shining Gale Part Three

    His hand moved once again as he began drawing the glistening spatial seal at the same time his body started losing color. With each second passing, his ego body paled as it began turning translucent.

    "I can only push forward!", his loss of memory continued as he couldn''t help but begin forgetting valuable information about his whole life. His life in the core faded away as the past eighteen past years of his experience disappeared in the void, and the moment he finished drawing the seal, his ego body''s facial expression flashed as an emotionless expression appeared on it.

    Fell''s empty ego body figure stood in the front of the glistening spatial seal, without moving an inch for a few seconds. In the middle of the translucent ego body, appeared a soft ripple that spread through the rest of the phantasmal soul. It began as a faint ripple but ended as a strong wave that busted everywhere inside of the emotionless ego body.

    A voice spread through the silent ego body as it boomed outward, and reverted through the long dim tunnel inside of the Gigantic Tree. The sound spread in the distance, materialized in a strong force akin to a mighty gale.

    Continue moving forward!

    It echoed silently as it moved on Fell''s undying intent. It was passing on the fire of survival toward the clueless ego body that had seemed emotionless and at a loss. A reaction appeared as the ego body''s face darkened. It stepped forward with a resolute intent, unfaded by the many glistening soul parts it was losing every second that moved.

    It didn''t care and stepped toward the spatial scrip that didn''t refuse his contact. It fused with his ego body, and a grey ripple seamlessly spread through the translucent ego body. Space didn''t resist his embrace as he took another resolute step, and disappeared with a spatial step.

    The ego body moved the layer of space with ease, and it was as though the lack of consciousness in the ego body made the space surrounding it embrace him in a warm cuddle. The speed and range of his spatial step drastically rose as he swam through the spatial void that layered reality.

    It was as though he was swimming in a pool of spatial elements that guided his body in the right direction. And the moment his ego body stepped out of space and reappeared in the long tunnel that was now lighted in a fiery red color, the grey spatial element had fused with his ego body as though they didn''t feel like parting path from him.

    His ego body fiercely stepped forward once again, unleashing the power of the spatial seal, the few spatial elements existing inside of his soul fused even more profoundly with him and made him innately attune with the law of space.

    His blank eyes glinted with an intense grey light as he resolutely stepped forward. His body moved through space as he felt himself swimming through the pool of space element that didn''t hesitate in filling the holes in his ego body, forming patches on top of the glistening stars.

    Forward!

    The voice echoed once again, powered by the active element that had gathered inside of it. Fell intent reverberated through the ego body as he reappeared inside of the tree. He gazed at the void for a second, as a dark, ominous aura lunged toward Fell''s ego body; Filling the rest of the young cultivator soul to the brim with power.

    Fell''s mindless ego body was assaulted with waves of intense ominous energy that ran havoc through the ego body, pushing back every speck of Fell''s last soul energy that had been present inside of his translucent ego body.

    The young cultivator''s ego body turned a dark shade of crimson that contained a tinge of purple and grey color.

    In less than a minute, his ego body had begun absorbing every speck of energy that was found in its way.

    It sadly didn''t make the difference between anything as it even consumed the massive amount of slaughter intent that the Gigantic Tree had been absorbing from the tree.

    Red and thin, long hair whipped in the void as noticeable changes began occurring to his ego body that was turning fiercer and fiercer by the seconds.

    Long canine grew among the teeth, and the ordinarily small nails turned into sharp claws as the ego body was corrupted.

    His ego body''s strength rose to a peak of its power after a few seconds after it appeared in the cloudy red area inside of the tree. The glistening miniature stardust that had been escaping from his body didn''t stop as it was replaced with the loss of killing aura that was continually being refreshed.

    Continue Forward!

    Resolution flashed on the ego body''s face as the enormous amount of different intent wasn''t enough to warp Fell''s lasting intent that continued echoing down his senseless ego body.

    Another spatial step was unleashed from the ego body- that could innately feel the presence of the source of power hidden among the clouds of slaughter aura- and he once again swam among the spatial element as he moved through another layer of existing space. Sadly, this time, the spatial element didn''t follow his body as the enormous amount of slaughter aura had mixed with his ego body.

    Nonetheless, the spatial element inside of his ego body fused even more with his body, turning his ego body once again more attune to space. The third step ended as the ego body left the endless void, and reappeared inside of the tree. A fierce expression was marked on his ego body''s face, one that was hellbent on executing Fell''s last intent.

    The amount of slaughter intent that had mixed with his soul had been enormous compared to what had been left in it. And if it weren''t for the spatial element that had mixed with it, the slaughter aura would have completely taken over his ego body ¡ª turning him into an active soldier that would forever protect the source of the power of the Gigantic Tree.

    Yet that wasn''t the case, due to the spatial element kindly cuddling the last parts of his soul that resided inside of his ego body. His relentless intent was sheltered as he took the fourth spatial step. The seal''s power decreased noticeably as nearly every bit of it was used during the last step.

    His body warped under the void as he disappeared from the extended red area surrounding the source of power. His body chooses the right direction as his senses were marked on the potent origin of strength, and he once swam among the sea of spatial elements.

    A few stubborn spatial elements still choose to make its way inside of his ego body, wrestling against the ominous slaughter aura that had taken rest inside of every inch of his ego body. They, nonetheless, still manage to pierce through the veil of darkness surrounding the remnant of Fell''s will residing inside.

    His body once against left space''s embrace as he reappeared in a vast area. Slaughter aura burst everywhere out of his ego body, the pressure near the source of power, causing his ego body to nearly turn into bright fireworks. But, after a few seconds passed, his body continued spilling vast amounts of dark energy.

    His ego body''s pure energy that had mixed with the spatial elements had been left untouched as the cycle of loss and absorption was entirely done with the slaughter aura residing nearby the source of power.

    The pressure weighting inwardly on his ego body held everything together as it reinforced the phantasmal soul''s density.

    A deafening roar escaped the mindless ego body as he once again stepped through space.

    The power of the spatial seal had already thinned drastically, quasi-nonexistent compared to the strength when it was formed. But, even with that little amount, he still managed to execute a spatial step once again.

    This spatial step had been executed with the last bits of the spatial seal''s strength, and should have been the weakest of the five steps. But the result was completely different as his ego body instinctively relied on the spatial element inside of him to further attune himself with space.

    The fact that his ego body didn''t contain any thought made the execution easier as it executed Fell''s technique in an instinctive manner. He delved deep inside of space''s numerous layer and once again absorbed numerous specks of space element that mixed further with his soul.

    Fell was utterly unaware of the hidden benefit gained during the calamity. His own soul, after traveling through space several time had ended up contaminated by a large number of spatial elements.

    And with the vast amounts of slaughter aura threatening to overrule the different energy existing inside of the ego body, causing them to twirl and fuse in an attempt to resist the ominous slaughter intent that had made it''s way in every crook and nanny of the young cultivator''s ego body.

 Chapter 268 - Shining Gale Part Four

    His body streaked through space at an unimaginable speed, before once again, reappearing in the middle of the Gigantic Tree.

    Clouds of red slaughter aura parted away from his figures, as his momentum rose to the limit.

    The last specks of power from the spatial scripture disappeared as he once took a step without any pause.

    This step was completely different from the other as the ego body sensed that the source of strength was only a few hundred meters away. Having regained its strength, the ego body flew forward, turning into a red streak that broke through the pressure of the source of strength.

    The surface of his ego body split apart due to the inward and outward resistance it was facing. Wisps of slaughter aura danced around his body as though his figure was set ablaze.

    He pierced through numerous layer of pressure that exuded from the source of strength. His speed broke through the limit as he turned into a thin red streak that dangerously approached the source of power with every second that passed.

    Continue pushing forward!

    Even with the abnormal amount of ominous aura that had fused with his ego body, Fell''s undying intent stood firmly as he pushed his ego body to continue pressing forward in a relentless pursuit toward his sole path to life. His eyes were firmly staring at the shining white light hanging in the middle in the red ominous cloud''s nucleus.

    He pierced through and continued advancing toward the eye of the cyclone in a relentless manner that made him seem as if his ego body was turning into a meteor.

    The amount of lost matter was swiftly compensated by the invading red cloud that was trying to refine his ego body into a mindless killing puppet. One could only imagine what would happen to his ego body if it wasn''t for Fell''s last intent that had revived it from the brink of death.

    His figure continued piercing through the void filled with ominous aura inside of the Gigantic Tree. The more he approached the source of strength. The more damage appeared on his ego body as the outburst of the energy inside of it escape from his body as though it was a twig.

    Forward.

    Fell''s intent seemed to lessen as all that was left from it echoed in an undying manner inside of the ego body. The red streak''s speed turned into a lightning bolt that swam through the red cloud.

    Every meter it advanced, the body would break down even further. Threatening to fall apart at any moment''s notice as the pressure radiating on him rose with his advance.

    Before long, as his ego body seemed to have turned into a mass of ominous energy that was sheltering the last bit of his intent, he arrived in a strange intersection inside of the Gigantic Tree.

    He stood on a barrier that separated the ominous energy from the source of power, as though the two types of energy weren''t made to coexist together. The ego body stopped for a split second before moving through the power.

    Part of the ominous energy he had absorbed was forced out of his body as the rest of his ego body''s energy regained control. Yet wisp upon wisps of the ominous slaughter aura didn''t want to leave its new habitat and forced a fusion with Fell''s ego body that was moving through the barrier.

    A soul stinging pain assaulted the ego body, his long red hair whipped in the void as he pierced through the invisible barrier in one go. He stepped through it with facility but ended up losing ninety percent of the killing aura that had laid hold inside of his ego body, during the process.

    As soon as his entire ego body moved through the barrier, the ego body''s surface splintered as gashes opened everywhere inside of the now translucent body.

    Forward!

    His ego body didn''t stop there and ignored the heavy injuries filling its phantasmal physique that threatened to collapse at any moment notice. The position of the source of strength turned clearer as he stood in the core of the tree''s protective measure. A pure, overpowering pressure, filled every inch of space inside of the barrier.

    His body turned into a shining comet that left a long line of soul matter behind it. Its speed rose to a tremendous one, and it seemed as though a single moment passed before it nearly appeared in front of the source of power.

    The mindless eyes of the ego body twitched as they laid eyes on the goal of Fell''s undying intent. A smooth and shiny seed laid barely in front of his eyes, floating admits a hallow of soft multicolored light waves.

    His hand moved toward the seed as the rest of his body began disappearing, starting from the leg. The event that had threatened to happen the moment the process had begun had at last began.

    And the moment the hand pierced through the multicolor veil of light, that was all that was left from Fell''s ego body. Everything else had disappeared in the void, with only a tinge of purple wisp that had grey dots in it.

    The sole phantasmal hand clenched the seed. A vast trembled spread from the source of strength, and before long, spread to the rest of the Gigantic Tree. The small shaking soon turned into an earthquake that shook the Gigantic Tree''s foundation, and even the overgrown forest nearby it wasn''t left untouched as a few trees began falling.

    The seed seamlessly entered inside of the sole hand, and a mystical change arose from the mass of energy that had once been Fell''s ego body.

    The seed quietly floated in the grasp of the hand, and the next moment, a strong yet soft vortex appeared around its surface. Every speck of energy that had fused with Fell''s ego body at some point began moving toward it.

    The wisp that had spatial elements fused with them were the first to move as they rejoined the hand, then the ominous slaughter aura that had merged with Fell followed suit. Both of those matters were on the verge of disappearing from the surrounding area as they felt a tremendous force reject them from the core of the Gigantic Tree.

    The sequence of events chained into a quick reaction that soon formed a mass of what had once been Fell''s ego body. A cocoon reappeared, with inside it, Fell''s ego body''s last remnant of existence that contained his undying intent. An intent that had dared to defy life and death in pursuit of survival and strength.

    A cocoon bloomed in the middle of the spotless white zone where the source of strength had laid quietly for years. The Gigantic Tree seemed at lost at first, clearly shaken by the loss of the spotless seed that had been in its center.

    Tremor continued for an extended period of time as Fell''s ego body began reforming under the intense care of the seed. Wisp upon wisps of soul power filled with the last remnant of his intent gathered together. They soon form a shape similar to his body, and although its feature was indistinctive, and could even be assessed as crude. It was fully intact and wasn''t self-destructing anymore.

    It was as though his ego body had met another soul palace that began nurturing it ¡ª sheltering it from the danger of being void of any source of energy.

    Under the intense care of the seed, the spatial element and the ominous slaughter aura were fused even more deeply with the new ego. The Gigantic Tree wept as its source of life disappeared, while the young cultivator''s ego body was reborn in a few minutes.

    And before long, a thought began forming in the mindless ego body that was in the midst of a reformation.

    "Where am I?"

    "Who am I?"

    Those two questions flew at a lightning-fast speed as the consciousness dwelling in the ego body gazed at the multicolored cocoon it laid in. It soon stopped asking those questions and focused its senses on the warm sensation akin to a mother''s embrace of the cocoon, washing the after taste of the humongous pain that had started with the ego body''s destruction.

    It laid quietly inside of the cocoon as the ego body''s shape turned even more distinct with time. Before long, a tremendous tremor rung from the place where the seed had been laying inside of the Gigantic Tree.

    The ego body was once again awakened by the acute rumbling, only this time. A feeling of strength and power filled every inch and cranny of the phantasmal soul. It shredded the multicolor cocoon with a wave of his hand and stepped out of it while gazing at the distance.

    "I need to go back to where I belong.", the grey colored eyes gazed through space as they locked on the position of his physical body.

    He stepped forward, light bent and curved around him, as his body was warped inside of the many folds of space layers existing around him.

    He disappeared from the white-colored space inside of the Gigantic Tree, that had now turned much darker since the disappearance of the seed.

 Chapter 269 - Shining Gale Part Five

    In front of the Gigantic Tree that was rumbling, threatening to fall at any moment notice, a powerful flash of light appeared in front of the immobile figure of a black-haired youth.

    A translucent and shining hand shredded the fabric of space before ending the spatial movement. Fell''s ego body gazed at this physical body; its freshly gained consciousness couldn''t help but feel close toward the empty physical body that sat on the ground. It glanced at it for a long time before stepping toward it. The air clapped and roared from its simple movement as it approached its true home.

    It could feel the inexplicable link existing between the ego body and the soul palace, and that came handy as the ego body was akin to a nascent being who had been born from the specks of Fell''s soul.

    The ego body felt a tinge coming from Fell''s undying intent, and the two bodies came in contact as the ego body began disappearing. They seamlessly fused into one figure as a change began occurring on Fell''s dormant physical body. The speed of his blood flow rose as a heartbeat reappeared in the black haired figure''s chest.

    Thud!

    The youth''s eyes twitched as the ego body appeared inside of the purple colored soul palace. The moment it reappeared in the familiar place inside of its physical body, a change immediately began happening as the Gigantic Tree''s seed of power flew out of its translucent body.

    Soon followed by glistening grey stars, and a torrent of ominous slaughter intent that took the form of a dense red river that began spilling everywhere inside of the vast purple expanse.

    The new element soon flooded every inch of the soul palace that began changing in the blink of an eye. The vast expanse of purple condensed as it rose upward inside of the soul palace, turning into a large firmament that hangs on top of Fell''s soul palace.

    The seed flew straight at the bottom, and specks of soil began amassing, quickly forming a small isle where the seed rested in the center.

    In a split second, Heaven and Earth were formed inside of his soul palace as powerful and potent soul energy began filling every crook and nanny of the large space.

    But the process didn''t change there as massive gains had come with this expedition. The grey spatial elements turned into numerous glistening stars that hang across the vast purple sky; they blinked and glinted as they began generating a clear stream of spatial power. The red slaughter aura spread everywhere around the small isle, turning into a vast sea that stood right under the purple sky.

    A minute didn''t even pass that the massive changes that happened to his soul palace spread to the rest of his body. Pure streams of energy flew out of the seed and began traveling through the meridian as they spread their might through every inch of the youth''s body.

    A strong and powerful heartbeat reverberated for a second. The heartbeat''s rate was slow, but the strength behind each beat made the space surrounding the youth''s body shake and clap as though a divine being was awakening.

    Blood Essence, Heaven and Earth Energy, and a potent Will Power spread through every inch and cranny of the youth''s body. And before long, the twitching eyes opened as Little Gold''s draconic roar spread from his dantian.

    Every type of energy existing inside of the youth''s body awoke under the ego body''s call. They flashed one after another, turning into numerous colors that tinged the youth''s amber colored eyes. Purple, Gold, Grey, and a deep red color appeared one after another before they died down as they hid back inside of his body like before.

    The only difference was with the red color that didn''t completely disappear as it mixed with the youth''s amber colored eyes. One look from him was enough to deter weak individuals as his ego body''s rebirth caused a complete change in the youth''s strength.

    The loss was enormous as his memory had been fatally lost during the process, but his gain was equivalent to his loss as the pure stream of strength filling his three cultivation path was something he had never felt before.

    Fell instinctively circled his cultivation as that action had been ingrained in his muscle memory. He felt the effect the growing seed had on his three cultivation base as pure streams of power were transmitted toward them.

    His blood essence, and heaven and earth energy turned more potent as the seed of strength he had fused with was doing its best to level his three cultivation path to the same level.

    Minutes passed as the youth kept his focus on controlling the massive amounts of energy spilled inside of him by the seed of strength.

    At first, a slight difficulty arose from the exercise of having to control his three cultivation base, but it swiftly turned into second nature as his powerful ego body helped him tremendously with his control.

    Time passed slowly as the night continued advanced. Judging from the color of the sky, and the shape of the moon, only a few hours were left before dawn would make its way to New Casablanca.

    Fell''s nascent consciousness continued strengthening itself as the last remnant of his undying intent had completely fused with his new ego body. His powerful will that didn''t stop in front of death to progress further down his path of cultivation had even been strengthened by the near death experience.

    His three cultivation base continued raising with every minute passing, and by the time dawn began creeping up in the sky, his three cultivation bases had nearly stepped through the second realm.

    He opened his eyes, every type of energy he cultivated radiated outward, brushing away the numerous patch of grass near him. He rose to his feet, and released the extent of his three cultivation bases to their limit.

    Light curved around him in a mysterious way as his figure turned elusive. One only needed a single gaze at the youth to recognize the danger he was capable of producing. With three cultivation bases hovering between the first and the second realm, they pulsed with might that threatened to explode outward.

    His eyes rose to the dark sky, and his sensitive soul picked up signals moving in the air. Part of his ego body turned into tendrils that surrounded the area he stood in, and the next moment he heard a conversation between four entities.

    "One of us has been prey by humanity''s retaliation¡­"

    "His life have been taken at this very moment, and I''m afraid that even if we group up now. We won''t find any clue as to who had killed him."

    "His loss might be grave to us, but this mission can''t be stopped!"

    "We will pay this blood debt with the complete destruction of this whole area!"

    A puzzled expression flashed on the youth''s face as he could sense the strong hostility held in their conversation. He stood in place, without moving a single muscle, as he continued preying over the four individual''s conversation.

    "At the first coming light, we will appear and this time the beasts won''t be the only one to wage war against them.", the voice contained a powerful intimidation that didn''t leave any leeway to the three other entities.

    "Yes, we still didn''t show them the real nightmare of this attack."

    "This man might have been the reason why we have received this order."

    "It is finally time¡­", added their leader. "Time for us to make our grand reveal in front of this weak species!"

    Fell''s face turned unsightly as he felt a thug deep down his ego body. His heart ached as he couldn''t help but feel alerted by those words; he couldn''t understand why as he didn''t have any memory related to his origin.

    But he knew that his existence was related to those four individual''s plans. He had to be present, and had to oppose them, or else he felt that his nascent ego body would break apart as he wouldn''t be in line with the undying intent inside of it.

    "Whoever I was¡­", mumbled Fell in a low tone. His face turned grim as he couldn''t help but feel a shiver traverse his body, he clenched his fist and uttered one word after another. "Even if I don''t know who I am anymore¡­ I will stay true to this painful feeling."

    The moment his hand formed a fist, a sharp intent rose from his body as a dark metallic sword appeared in his hand. A refined sword intent appeared around his body as he gazed with surprise at the weapon that had appeared out of thin air.

    "This¡­", he thought as he felt the tremendous amount of slaughter aura hidden in it. "This is my weapon¡­", he thought as he clenched his fist tighter around the round metallic pommel.

    The slaughter aura inside of his soul palace flew seamlessly to his right hand, feeding Soldier''s Fortune with potent ominous energy.

 Chapter 270 - Earths Expanse Part One

    The night quietly passed as the tired soldiers of New Casablanca made their way to the higher part of the walls. Jamie gazed at his reflection on the metallic surface of the elevator he stood in, he couldn''t help but make an unsightly expression when he glanced at his own complexion.

    Two days of constant battle had wasted him more than he had thought. His night, sleepless and restless, caused his condition to worsen even more as there always existed a risk that an attack would happen. The worst part was the constant stress his body was receiving from the environment.

    Thankfully, his military background made the task easier for him as he had been prepared to face rough situations during his training phase.

    The worst among the soldiers were the freshly enrolled civilian that had donned MechSuits to protect their home ground. One could only respect their decision as it had, nonetheless, helped tremendously in the past two days.

    But, today, Jamie only had to take a single glance at them to know their conditions. A far cry from how they looked before, as Jamie could only avoid their listless gaze that had been traumatized by the beast''s strength on the second day.

    Jamie felt the ascension of the elevator come to a stop. He patted the pilot suit he had done with a bitter smile on his lips as he saw the door of the elevator open in front of him.

    "I will stay alive!", he thought as he slapped his cheek to awaken himself. His eyes glowed as his spirit shifted into battle mode, his thought filled with determination and resolve as his mind had been tempered by the last two days.

    He embraces the third day with determinate footsteps that took him to the north wall where he had been assigned. A group of Soldiers standing next to their MechSuits appeared in Jamie''s sight that didn''t take long to regroup with them. He greeted a few familiar faces, before beginning to assess his equipment.

    He religiously went through every parcel of his MechSuit as he was aware that preparation was key to success. He fixed a few loose racks, before taking out the long and thin spear he used as a weapon.

    It was made of a dense metallic alloy, and to this day, it was the weapon he had relied on for many years. Never failing him during the time where he had to fight, and that had stayed true even in front of the massive beast wave.

    Yet that reality had changed with the evolution of the monsters. The second day, he had come to the realization that he wouldn''t be capable of taking even one of those beasts by himself. Thankfully, Jamie had never been too complacent with himself and had managed to swallow the harsh reality in front of him.

    His hand trembled slightly as he was rubbing the blade of his weapon with a special kind of oil. His spine shivered as he felt the cold wind prick on the surface of his suit, and couldn''t help but curse out loud.

    "What the f**k is this weather?", he mumbled in a tired tone before gazing at the distance of the surrounding of New Casablanca. His eyes blinked in the dark as he could sense the sun would soon make its way to the top of the firmament. It took him a few seconds to gather his focus back, and his eyes fell back on his work.

    His hand moved faster as he continued applying oil to his weapon. A minute passed before he took out a sharpening yellow stone that he soon made use of. He worked faster as he felt time passing; he couldn''t help but apprehend the incoming day as his mind flashed with the thought of the massive beast.

    "How much will they change today?", he thought as he was sure that the last day was a coincidence. The strength of those beasts had caused troubled down to the four defensives outposts, and had nearly wasted half of the city''s ammunition to temporize the fierce creatures.

    Except for the north and south wall that had been single handedly dealt by two cultivators. The two other walls had faced significant loss with the east wall losing every automaton soldier it had.

    They could only come to the bitter usage of self-destruction to take a few beasts with them. A few deadly creatures even went to the point of eating the energy nucleus of the automaton. Some died, while some evolved and turned into even more virulent creatures.

    One could only feel despair when faced with a situation like this. With the worst fear possible to a sentient creature, being the fear of the unknown, the mind of the many soldiers couldn''t help but shudder as they expected the monster''s evolution.

    "Sadly, we can''t evolve as easily as them¡­", he thought as he took his spear close to his eyes. He noticed a visible dent on the durable metallic alloy, and couldn''t help but sigh before getting on his feet.

    "I couldn''t pierce more than an inch in that thick skin¡­", he thought as he began pressing dials on the computer next to his MechSuits. He checked the many numbers on the screen with a mindless gaze before ending the analysis process.

    He opened the inside of his MechSuit, who released a stream of pressurized air before opening its innards.

    A comfortable leather looking material appeared in front of Jamie''s eyes. His hand softly brushed the dark colored material before he stepped inside without hesitation. "Once again¡­ We will fight, partner!", he thought as he closed pressed a button on the panel existing inside of the MechSuit.

    An acute sound of air filling his MechSuit made his head buzz as his sight was flooded with the darkness of being inside a MechSuit. It took a few seconds for the MechSuit to light up its engine, and before long, light quickly filled the inside of the armored armament.

    The armored hand moved as he began a series of a few movements to determine if everything was okay with his MechSuit. After a minute, he finished executing the sequence of stances he always did to attune with his armor, and before long, he took out the last cable attached to his MechSuit.

    He left the area where the soldiers were preparing their MechSuits, and joined a group of armored soldiers.

    They were standing solemnly in a direction that pointed to the wastelands outside of New Casablanca.

    His thought flowed non stop as he moved the enormous weight of the armor to the place where the army was grouping together. He couldn''t see the faces of the individual under the helmet, but could sense the dense atmosphere that hung in the air. No one tried breaking the heavy mood that had taken place among the army.

    A few heads moved, minute nods that the many soldiers threw to each other when recognizing a familiar MechSuit. The respect those soldiers had for their brother in arms had since long rose to the top, as they were sure that alone, none of them would have had the guts to face those beasts.

    Only mad and overpowered individuals could face the sea of creatures with a peaceful mind.

    The rest could only gang up on a single creature, in the hope of taking it down before it killed anyone else.

    Sadly, the long and rough process would end up with unavoidable sacrifices from the ranks of the soldiers.

    The same scene was reproduced among the other walls. A tense atmosphere had surrounded the city as the numerous soldier could feel the grasp they had on the battle slowly disappear as the day passed.

    What was worst, was that a few individuals noticed that the two strong cultivators that had led numerous battles hadn''t appeared yet.

    They couldn''t help but tense up even further, as they were aware that if it weren''t for the powerful cultivator, their defenses would have since long fallen to the numerous beasts.

    As time advanced, the tired soldier donned their armored MechSuit as they slowly rejoined the four outposts. And before long, a bright light had begun making its way among the dark veil of the night. Their heart rate rose as they couldn''t help but tense up even further, and under their helmets, numerous faces had turned pale.

    A few couldn''t have but have thoughts about securing their own lives. But those ideas would quickly be washed by the numerous memories they had of their cities. This was the place where their families had lived for centuries; none of them wanted to face their ancestors in shame in the afterlife.

    Sadly, the fact that those individuals were in control of their survival instinct. That wouldn''t necessarily be the case when they would meet the deadly beast of the third day¡ª Beasts that had turned dozens of times stronger than the creatures of the second day.

    The third day of the beast wave assaults would soon become a significant turning point for New Casablanca. A day that every soldier would forever remember as being the day they faced hellish nightmares that seemed t have lunged straight out of the purgatory.

 Chapter 271 - Earths Expanse Part Two

    The tension inside of the soldier''s heart boomed as they waited for the arrival of the beast. This war had been one where they had mostly focused on defenses, and that had turned even truer the second day.

    Their restless thought could be seen from the thick trembling armor that stood on top of the wall. The sun had already made its way up to the sky, and in the distance, their worst fear began slowly taking form. Humongous figures that made the earth tremble with every step they took could be seen making their way from the wilderness surrounding.

    Jamie''s heart fell the moment the creatures appeared in his sight. He didn''t need to have extraordinary powers to determine that their strength had risen once again, and sadly, he wasn''t the only one that felt their changes as every single soldier came to the same conclusion.

    The walls surrounding their city was doomed to fall by the end of the day. The harsh reality fell with the might of a bomb; the soldiers didn''t even try that they already knew the outcome of what was going to happen.

    Their stomachs were twisted into knots under their strong fear, and a few soldiers couldn''t help but take a few steps back as they tried to slowly flee from the battlefield. Their attempt stopped the moment they noticed that their peers had begun doing the same.

    They forced themselves with tears nearly spilling from the corners of their eyes, and quaking legs that threatened to trip and fall at any moment''s notice.

    Jamie couldn''t help but sigh as he gazed at the soldiers'' reaction. His gaze fell on a group of determined individual that didn''t move at all when the beasts appeared in their field of view. Jamie recognized a golden colored MechSuit, and decided to approach them with quiet steps.

    His feet stopped next to them as they helmets turned his way. They nodded at his direction with a slightly noticeable shiver that wasn''t missed by Jamie. "Brothers¡­ I''m afraid today is the day.", he mumbled as he couldn''t contain himself further.

    "Let us fight together then.", an aged voice left the helmet of the MechSuit standing next to the golden colored MechSuit. The voice didn''t contain any fear, and even had a mellow tone from the man''s acceptance. It was Walter, the police assault team leader that had been fighting to the bitter end against the limitless sea of creatures.

    The many MechSuits next to him nodded in responses to his words as they truly believed in his leadership. Death wouldn''t cause any fear to the ones that had prepared to truly sell their life for the near absent chance of survival.

    Among those individuals was Johnny, inside of his golden colored MechSuit, and next to them was the rest of the assault team. There were also a few individuals that Jamie didn''t recognize, but he felt from their aura that those were brave men and women that weren''t afraid of betting their lives on the battlefield.

    "Let us show them what humanity is capable of when cornered.", Walter spoke in a deep voice as his hand moved toward his helmet. He gripped the metallic structure of his armored armament and pulled it off, freeing his face from the protection of his MechSuit.

    He glanced at the many men surrounding him, and couldn''t help but flash a bitter smile as his eyes glowed with reminiscence. In a split second, his life and everything he had accomplished during it flashed in front of his eyes.

    He exhaled a deep breath that cleansed his thought. His gaze turned resolute as he filled his lung before roaring one word.

    "Fight!", the word reverberated through the wall. His aged voice contained youthfulness and a passion that awakened the heart of many depressed soldiers.

    They had been cornered inside of their construct. Incapable of leaving the walls of their city, in fear of being obliterated by the strong beasts.

    "Why the fuck should we be afraid!?", roared one of the freshly recruited soldiers. His voice shivered as his emotion floated out of his body in a bright outburst that contaminated his peers.

    "We have died the moment we choose to fight!", another added as his eyes turned resolute under his helmet. A bright smile appeared on his face- even as he had nearly soiled himself from the tremendous fear he had felt- and he resolutely stepped forward in line with Walter and the rest.

    "Brave citizens!", exclaimed Walter once again before pausing. He knew that for the soldiers to abandon their fears, he would need them to face the harsh reality that their city was facing. "Do not fear death! Fight to the bitter end and only then will you face true peace of mind!"

    His word might have sounded depressing due to his strange, natural, acceptance of his own death. But the effect it had on the soldiers was immediately felt as they began grouping around him in a tight formation. Time seemed to slow down as every pair of eyes was locked on the advancing beasts in the distance.

    Their height and the pressure they released was nothing compared to the day before. They glanced at them, watching as they slowly approached the walls where their family lived.

    "You can fear them¡­ You can run away from them¡­", spoke Walter slowly once again. "But we can''t flee from the promises we did to ourselves. All of us, standing on top of this wall, had vowed to give our blood and flesh to the city."

    "To the bitter end!", he mumbled in a low that still spread to the ears of everyone present. His hands moved once again, clenching around the thick black helmet of his MechSuit, that he put back on top of his head.

    His demeanor changed completely the moment he put his helmet back, once again turning into a simple soldier. Akin to the many hidden faces that were standing on top of the wall.

    Jamie couldn''t help but steal a glance at the middle aged man. He couldn''t help but feel as though the knot in his stomach had mystically untied. He couldn''t help but chuckle as he grabbed his spear tighter around him.

    But, just a minute after Walter ended the speech that had rejuvenated the soldiers'' battle intent. A change occurred among the numerous ranks of the strong beasts in the distance, one that didn''t escape the keen eyes of the soldiers standing on top of the walls.

    They saw the deadly and fierce beasts come to a stop a hundred meters in front of the walls. Then, the beasts parted as though they were opening a path for something stronger than them.

    That entity didn''t take long to enter the eyes of the numerous soldiers on top of the wall. Their eyes opened wide as panic filled their mind due to the sight of the humanoid figure entering their vision.

    The moment they saw it, they knew that the creature''s existence was wrong, terribly wrong. Their rationality told them that no creature on the face of Earth could evolve to that rank, as they could feel a godly vibe coming from that creature.

    As if the entity stood on a drastically different evolutionary chain from them. The pure and holy aura exuded from the humanoid entity that was slowly making its way to the forefront of the beast wave.

    The contrast between the two drastic auras left the soldiers shaken as they felt as though they were standing in front of a godly construct.

    "What is that?!", mumbled Jamie as his thought couldn''t come with a rational hypothesis. He stood, smitten by the beauty of the humanoid creature, and was incapable of reacting for a long period of time.

    The same was true for the rest of the soldiers in the north defensive outpost. And to a certain extent, was true for every single one of the four outposts that surrounded New Casablanca. The new quickly passed among the higher up- hidden deep inside of the walls- that began looking for the answer as to who were the four entities that had appeared.

    Their humanoid figures left them trembling with fears, and the drastic difference existing between every one of the four entities left every single individual that gazed at them deeply shaken.

    "Puny human from this backward area!", a powerful wave spread through every inch of space stretching across New Casablanca. "Tonight, this city will be no more than a past souvenir."

    "You can be proud of your accomplishment.", the morphed voice continued with a bewitching intent. "You have fought well with your backward technology, without any strong cultivation, you have resisted us for two days."

    "Sadly¡­ As everything comes to an end. Your time has come!".

    The voice spread through the city, Appearing in the mind of every soldier in the form of an indomitable intent, brushing away the battle intent that the army''s leader had managed to awaken among the soldiers in their ranks.

 Chapter 272 - Earths Expanse Part Three

    Terror spread through the walls sporadically as every soldier knew that his peer was in a similar state. The already tense atmosphere turned deadly as numerous soldiers took out their helmet before running away.

    Their hand was held in front of their lips. Liquid spilling out of their mouth as they threw away the meager amount of food they had managed to swallow.

    Panic spread on top of the wall, and before long, numerous individual was curled up on the floor. Tears streaking down their eyes as their heart felt as thought it was going to explode.

    Only a few, rare, battle-hardened persons could manage to resist the horrifying fear that was shaking their soul. Their blood ran cold as their blood vessel thinned down from the vasoconstriction caused by the stressful trauma of the truth bomb.

    Jamie opened his lips in the hope of trying to reinvigorate the spirit of his peers. But the only thing that ended up leaving his mouth was a shallow sight that translated the internal crisis he was feeling deep down.

    In front of death, each individual found ways to cope with it. Some panicked as they lost control of their feelings in an emotional outburst, while others would simply abandon themselves in complete inaction.

    Deep down, Jamie knew that he was part of the second type of individual as self deprecating thought didn''t take long before forming in his mind.

    "Well¡­ We did everything we could¡­",he said as his shoulder began dropping low.

    "What can we do against such godly beings?", he added as he felt that the simple fact of having fought the beasts without dying was a feat to reckon. His thought fell in a negative spiral that continued swallowing inwardly, causing him to lose focus on whatever was happening next to him.

    His ears heard sounds, varying in their frequencies, and some were deep while others were acute. His eyes caught sign of what was happening, yet his mind ignored everything as he focused completely on his own thought.

    In one way or another, Jamie had found himself obliged to cope with his upcoming death. His fighting spirit was akin to a candle flickering in a blizzard, threatening at any moment to turn into ghosts of its past¡ªa shallow smoke from the internal fire that had inhabited him.

    "Only those like him can afford to keep their spirit up in those kinds of situation¡­", he thought as the image of a broad back flashed in his mind. "Sadly, I don''t think that even he can take us out of this situation¡­"

    "As strong as he can become, a man only has this much influence in front of calamities¡­", he ended his thought as his mind bloomed with the negative thoughts related to his own doom. Bribes of his life flashed in front of his face in a stuttered manner; he couldn''t help but feel happy about his accomplishment.

    Before long, a peaceful expression flashed on his face as he couldn''t help but feel like fleeing from the battlefield. Not to save his own life, but to gaze one last time at the first and last woman he had ever loved in his life.

    He felt a thug deep down his heart. Then, what couldn''t be contained would never be, he turned toward Walter, and couldn''t help but bow deeply toward him.

    The middle aged man didn''t notice him, but the muffled voice that came from his right side still manages to gather his attention.

    "Forgive me sir, but this isn''t where I''m supposed to be!", he said before turning around. His engine screamed as his figure took on a flight, he turned into an arrow that pierced toward the center of the main district.

    His heart was filled with regret, but the last two days without having met his wife caused him to ignore the shame he was feeling. It was as though he had an epiphany, that in this specific moment, there was no use for his up in the wall.

    He wouldn''t be capable of shifting the balance of the war by himself. He wouldn''t be capable of fighting that godly entity, and he wouldn''t be capable of leading the scared soldiers with his current state of mind.

    The only thing he found himself capable of doing was accompanying his wife as he waited for the city''s destruction. He didn''t know if that was the most logical action to do, but he could only follow the call of his heart and soul.

    He flew through the numerous building in a lightning-fast manner. Usually, this kind of action would be noticed immediately by the authorities, but he couldn''t care less. On top of that, the main district''s street was void of any soul due to the critical state the city found itself in.

    "Faster-Faster-Faster¡­", he thought as his armored figure streaked between a few buildings. After not even a minute since he had quit the walls, he appeared in front of a large but modest building that was hidden between two business skyscraper.

    The acute sounds of his MechSuit depressurizing spread before his figure flew out of the armored armament. He began walking- before swiftly darting in a run- toward the building''s entrance.

    He stopped in front of the doors for a few seconds, before typing the dial on the panel to his left in a lightning fast manner. His heart emboldened his heart, made his shame disappear, as he streaked through the hall of the building where he lived.

    Before long, he found himself obliged to a standstill after entering the elevator. He gazed at his complexion, and in a flash of consciousness, couldn''t help but regret his action. "Will she still love me in this state?", he thought as he gazed at his horrible complexion.

    Large black bags were hanging under his eyes. Small patches of facial hair had begun forming a two days beard, and his hair was ruffled and in disarray. The worst was the color of his skin, a yellowish-white color that was a far cry from his healthy tone.

    His heartbeat sped as his worst fear caused his complexion to pale even further. He felt nauseous inside of the small elevator, and his internal emotional outburst caused him to nearly fall down his knee. His mental state declined at a fast pace as the encounter with the divine being caused a hole to appear down the foundation of his soul.

    Before long, the hellish wait was ended as he felt the elevator come to a stop. As soon as the door opened, he nearly threw himself out as he began feeling intense suffocation.

    His figure swayed as he took the direction of the door of his apartment, his staggering steps echoed in the silent corridor, only coming to a stop when he stopped in front of the wooden door.

    His hand trembled slightly as his arm rose toward the door. Determination flashed on his face as he had nothing more to lose, his hand moved twice in a row before stopping.

    Knock! Knock!

    He stood patiently, waiting with his head dropped low toward the ground. "What if she already left?", his heart jumped at the random thought, and he quickly calmed his paranoia as he avoided thinking about that.

    A minute passed as his hand once again rose. Hesitation flashed on his red eyes that hadn''t blinked once since he stood in front of the door, afraid that he would miss the moment the door would open.

    In a little time frame of a few minutes, his mental state continued worsening as his thought began falling in an abyss like a train of thought. And before long, he heard a click that resounded through the entirety of his soul itself.

    His eyes rose toward the opening door as his shoulder instinctively strengthened. In the small amount of time, before the door opened, a bright smile had popped on his face, the last attempt at hiding the depressed state of thought that had worsened in less than an hour.

    The figure he had dreamed about appeared in front of his eyes. His smile turned brighter, and he couldn''t contain himself anymore as he stepped toward the feminine figure in front of him.

    Blond flamboyant hair cascaded down the figure''s thin and frail frame. A surprised groan escaped her mouth as she felt the familiar figure embrace her in a split second.

    Thought ran across her mind as she couldn''t help but ask herself is the war was over, but she didn''t open her mouth as she felt the tense muscles all over her husband''s body.

    She waited a few seconds in his comfortable snuggle before making her way toward his face. She gazed at him with a pure face that could revive the dead and waited a few seconds before asking the question that hung on her throat.

    "What had happened?", she asked softly with a quiet smile hanging on her rosy lips.

    Jamie looked at the petite woman in front of him; his smile slowly decomposed into a grim face. His mouth opened slowly as he was going to explain everything to her. "She needs to know¡­", he thought as he determined himself to speak the truth.

    But nothing left his mouth, only thin droplets of tears began falling down his hard cheeks before he embraced his wife in a tighter grasp.

 Chapter 273 - Earths Expanse Part Four

    The situation up in the walls took a sudden turn as panic filled the heart of the many soldiers. Without any confrontation, and based solely on the appearance of the entities, terrors had spread in a few minutes.

    Numerous individuals ended up in the same situation as Jamie, swiftly running away from their duty as soldiers. Their determined and resolute vows were turning into smokes that whiffed softly in the distance.

    No one tried to stop them as they were focused on trying to compose their own hearts. And not even a few minutes after the appearance of the entities, the number of individuals up in the walls had dwindled to less than a thousand individuals.

    More than half of the soldiers threw their weapons away as they flew toward their families. Their faces, unsightly and pale, were hidden under their helmets. One could only guess how their close one would react when seeing them.

    Sadly, Walter didn''t have any family. His heart swayed due to the entity''s world, as he similarly knew that their doom was close. But his close ones were the few individuals that were standing by his sides.

    He turned his head slowly toward Johnny, glancing at the dignified armor he wore. A smile appeared on Walter''s face as he knew- without even needing to glance at the orphan''s face- that the tall man was determined to fight to the bitter end.

    "I have no regrets in this life¡­", mumbled Walter as his eyes glanced at the soldiers that hadn''t left their ranks. Ronny, Rose, and Dorothy were standing a few feet away. They similarly didn''t show any physical reaction; Walter could swear that his assault team was panicking.

    But they stood true to their duty, and that caused him to feel deep respect for them. A minute passed as the beast didn''t move.

    The four godly beings glanced at the soldiers in the rank with a bemused expression on their human like faces. They were aware of the flaws existing among mortals, one of them being the unconditional fear of death. A normal reaction- bread from survival instinct- that caused tremendous loss through New Casablanca''s rank.

    Their intent spread through the many evolved beasts surrounding them. Nurturing their blood lust as they showed them those now intelligent beasts the weakness existing in their enemies'' rank.

    "Puny mortal¡­", a rough voice spread through the wind. Unheard by anyone in the city, except for the four godly entities that were using hidden means to communicate.

    "In the end, they only amount to this¡­ And here I thought that earthling was a brave race¡­", responded one of the entities.

    "Don''t underestimate them. Anyone can develop in times like these, the loss of our fifth brother is a lesson that we can''t forget."

    They conversed with each other, unaware of the individual that had taken down their peer was still alive. Their heart wept the loss from their brothers, but sadly, they were aware that the gains would only be greater.

    Having to share the resource of the Gigantic Tree had been a cause of conflict between them. Deep down, even with their brotherly feelings, they secretly hoped that one of them would once again die in an ''accident''.

    "We will release the beasts in five minutes.", mumbled the leaders of the entities. He gazed at the north defensive outpost with a smile on his lips. "This city will fall soon, and with it, we will finally be freed from staying in this backward planet.", movement appeared in his back as massive wings spanned out of his flash.

    Pure and holy energy spread from around his position, basking the slaughter aura that surrounded the beast wave under him. His figure flew toward the sky, and he once again did a feat of strength that left a deep mark in the soldier''s mind.

    The reason why New Casablanca''s defense had been split in four sides was simply that those four points were where the weakness of the walls existed. It was the place where the steel plated massive wall was the thinnest due to the fact that they served as exit points for the city.

    The winged angel like entity rose to the sky, and stopped when attaining dozens of meters of height. He glanced at the city with a bemused expression on his face before raising an arm. His finger slightly tilted forward as he pointed toward the massive wall of the city.

    Light particle curved toward him as a glinting point appeared on the tip of his finger. Time seemed to comes to a stop as the entity continued manipulating the godly aura surrounding him.

    The end of his finger blinked as a massive amount of energy was gathered in it. The temperature surrounding him rose as his finger turned into a shining black hole that swallowed every single ray of light next to his body.

    Walter and the other soldiers gazed at the scene with shock in their eyes. He mumbled in a low muffled tone as his eyes didn''t leave the shining figure in the air, "An angel of destruction¡­".

    Then, as the beauty from the scene left their mind, their survival instinct kicked in as they understood that the godly entity was preparing an attack. The air split apart as, a power akin to a nuclear bomb was being gathered by the entity, and sparks of lightning appeared in the atmosphere.

    Heaven and Earth were shaken by the entity''s movement. The next moment, before the soldiers up the wall could even begin reacting, the ray of light left the godly being''s finger.

    A beam coursed through the air in the blink of an eye. Light was in the end the fastest matter existing in the universe, and that law stayed true with the entity''s attack.

    The soldiers up in the wall saw a flash of light that burned their iris. Their eyes closed in a natural reflex; a few even thought that their last moment had arrived.

    Seconds passed, and they regained their sight as the entity''s attack disappeared with the same speed as it appeared. Walter glanced everywhere around him, his heart densely hanging near his throat, as he looked at the point of impact of the attack.

    A few seconds passed as every soldier in the wall couldn''t help but look around, but nothing particular entered his eyes.

    "What a weird fle-¡­", mumbled one of the soldiers before a strong tremor appeared in every inch of the dense metallic walls. Gasp and screams echoed as the soldiers lost their footings.

    From a distance, a few saw that the north part of the walls had been cleanly split apart from the rest of the circular construct. Horror mixed with surprise appeared in the eyes of the higher up hidden inside of the wall, as the acute alarm resonated in a stinging manner in their ears.

    No words left their lips as they saw the north part of the wall turned into many cubes that began falling downward. MechSuits and the numerous metallic parts of the wall tumbled toward the ground.

    An avalanche of steel rained toward the red dirt soiled by the two days of battle. Mixed with them were the screams of horror and panic from the numerous soldiers that had been standing up in the walls.

    Among the dense materials that composed the walls, one could see the intricate construct that had been made inside of them. Rooms, elevators, and even offices had been split apart from the gigantic construct that protected the city from the hazardous outside world.

    "They did it¡­", mumbled a high ranked official from the new authority that had been handling the logistic of the war.

    "A massive breach has been made on our defenses¡­", responded another one of his colleagues from a distance position. The rumbling sound made from the falling materials of the wall stopped as the image of their opened up city appeared in the screens in front of them.

    "Our city is doomed¡­"

    "Those godly entities won''t be needed anymore, as those beasts alone are capable of turning the city into a hellish nightmare!"

    Information spread at a lightning fast speed as the numerous higher up gazed at the horror in the screens.

    "Prepare our departure!?", roared one of the higher up in a fit of panic. He got up on his feet, sending the chair he had been sitting toward the smooth floor.

    "Departure?", mumbled one of them with a rough tone. "Where do you want to escape?"

    "It is time for us to honor the same vow we swore to accomplish.", continued the voice rough voice that came from a man with a high graded military background. "We will stand next to those soldiers! Assist the soldiers in the fallen north wall!"

    The thoughts of the higher up diverted. Mixed intention of fleeing away, and fighting to their last breath filled their thought as they knew that it was time to act.

 Chapter 274 - Earths Expanse Part Five

    The army of evolved beasts has been standing still for a few minutes since their arrival. But as soon the north wall fell due to the entity''s attack, it was as though a chain reaction had started.

    One the beast took the first step toward the steel pile of rubble that had been standing solidly as the north wall. As soon as that creature took the first step, the rest followed in a massive advance that caused an upheaval in the ground.

    A giant cloud of dust rose from their position as they began advancing toward the massive opening in the defenses of New Casablanca. It was as though a veil of darkness was gradually making its way toward the city, preying to invade from the opening made by the holy being.

    MechSuits rose from the pile of steel; their mind disoriented from the event that just happened, and their innards twisted from the sight of the destructed wall.

    Those who have stayed to face the beast were part of the bravest soul of the city, the cream of the crop from the soldiers that had changed during the past two days. The constant fighting had caused them to develop into assets that would have been vied by any city-state on Earth.

    They turned around, looking to help their engulfed comrade before noticing the advancing clouds of dust in the distance. Their parched lips opened as it took them a few seconds to understand that the attack had begun.

    Disoriented and unprepared, the soldiers sped their works as they took away massive pieces of steel away from the engulfed MechSuits. In the deadly situation, they didn''t hesitate to make their engines roar as they tried saving their peers from the massive weight that threatened to crush them alive.

    Walter was in this situation, he had been surprised by the event and had ended up with leg blocked under a massive steel pike that weighed a few tones. Johnny was currently standing in front of him, and he had reacted swiftly when the destruction had arisen and had taken flight and managed to avoid any damage.

    His steel gauntlets were clenched around the massive steel pike. Under his helmet, an unsightly expression was placarded on his face as he used his utmost strength to release his foster father. He was soon joined by Ronnie, and a few other soldiers that began helping him in freeing Walter.

    Thankfully, MechSuits granted inhuman strength to the weakest of soldiers. And with a common push, in a right angle, they managed to free Walter''s leg from being crushed by the steel pike.

    Thanks to their team work, the soldiers managed to free most of the unscathed Mechsuit and began preparing the- soon to be- confrontation with the beasts. Sadly, a few unlucky soldiers had disappeared from the rank of the northern army.

    Their brothers in arms were unaware if they had deserted, or had simply been killed by the falling tons of steel material of the north wall. The massive steel debris had piled up on the ground, with some having attained a height of a few dozens of meters. Nobody knew if those poor souls were still alive under the debris, slowly dying due to lack of oxygen, or had been crushed during the impact.

    Thankfully, the northern army wasn''t left enough time to think about those cases and had methodically begun preparing for the confrontation. Their resolute steps took them to a clear place in front of the massive debris, as they began grouping in many lines.

    Walter was among them, and with other experimented soldiers, he began directing the many lost soldiers to enter their formation.

    "Gather round!", he roared as his figure moved from one place to another.

    "Melee weapon users, protect the front and sides!", roared another voice that was helping the small army formed into a cohesive force.

    Every single second was counted, and with their time, limited, their voices contained the urgency and alarm of the situation. By the time the massive clouds that hid the beast entered their range of fire, the northern army had managed to gather in a small formation.

    That stood in front of the massive hole of the circular wall that circled around New Casablanca.

    "Load your weapons!"

    "Unload!". Several voices spoke at the same time, issuing the order in a synchronized manner that would have made anyone doubt if it wasn''t a single individual leading the calls.

    A glistening firework was spewed out from the rifle in the hand of the small army of MechSuits. Bullets pierced through the air in the direction of the massive billow of dust standing in front of them.

    Cowards die many times before their deaths;

    The valiant never taste of death but once.

    Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,

    It seems to me most strange that men should fear;

    Seeing that death, a necessary end,

    Will come when it will come.

    One of the northern army''s leader quoted an earthling''s author of past times. He knew that the chances of them surviving the confrontation with the massive beasts were close to zero.

    As he led the army, his thought was filled with many verses that eased his heart from the cries of the battlefield.

    The first gust of bullets disappeared inside of the billowing avalanche of dust that was making its way toward the hole in the walls of the city. It was as though the fiery ammunition had been shot at the surface of the water, with no effect except from the slight movement they caused in the surface of the veil of darkness surrounding the beasts.

    "Load!", the voices turned coarser from the stress.

    "Shoot!"

    The cycle was once again repeated, albeit faster. The avalanche of soil raised from the beasts'' advance turned higher and higher as it approached their position.

    By the time the northern army unloaded their magazines for the third time, the veil of darkness had turned akin to a tsunami of dust in their eyes.

    Yet, even in that state, none of them took flight as they hold their ground in a determinate manner. A few preyed past gods to help their family survive what would come next.

    Some had their body move in an automatic manner, as their mind had shut down their thought in front of death. They emptied their rifles on the massive advancing clouds, before reloading in a lightning fast manner.

    The moment the beast wave stood twenty meters away from the northern army. Their legs trembled as they lost balance in their footing due to the earthquake caused by the weights of the advancing giant creatures.

    "Fly! Do not throw your life away!", Walter roared as his MechSuit engine kicked in. No one hesitated as they trusted their comrade, and every MechSuit in the northern army left the grounds as they continued using every single ammunition they had with them.

    "Made every second gained count.", screamed someone as he flew through the humongous pile of steel that had been the north wall. Without having to utter a single order, a few individuals flew there in a synchronized manner and planted every single bomb they had among the steel jungle that stood in front of the city.

    Johnny was part of those individuals, he retreated at lightning fast speed toward the hole in the walls. His hand moved, as he threw chunks of explosive material as though he was leaving snacks for the advancing beasts.

    The beast wave advanced, and the small north army retreated as they did their best to use every weapon they had at hand. And what was vowed to happen, happened. One of the MechSuit retreated back, his hands empty as he had dismantled his ammoless energy rifle in a split second.

    He grabbed the energy crystal that was nearly empty, and threw himself inside of the tsunami-like wall of dust that was threatening to swallow the city.

    He laughed in a maddened manner as he didn''t hesitate to start the implosion of his MechSuit. Sadly, as soon as the armored figure of the soldier approached the beasts.

    A gigantic jaw- filled with hundreds of thin sharp teeth- broke away from the veil of dust surrounding the beast, and swallowed the soldier in one bite. A muffled explosion resounded soon after, quickly disappearing as it was overpowered by the enormous local noise produced by the battlefield.

    Soon, his sacrifice wasn''t the only one in the north battlefield, as a few other soldiers threw themselves near the beast wave; Turning into streaking comets that turned into bright suns from a distance.

    The north army retreated past the steel jungle, and made their way through the city before positioning themselves in the streets of their city.

    The deadly silence of the city contrasted heavily with the sounds outside of it. And before long, a tremendous and powerful, shockwave spread as the soldiers detonated the explosive they''ve put in the debris of the wall.

 Chapter 275 - Dooms Soft Sphere Part One

    The powerful shockwave originated from the steel jungle that had been formed by the numerous debris. As soon as it appeared, it sent multiple steel plates and pikes tumbling everywhere around it, especially on the fierce beasts that had arrived there.

    Under the influence of the explosion, the steel pieces turned into shrapnel that flew at an incredible speed everywhere around the hole in the wall.

    The shockwave didn''t stop at the jungle of steel- last remnant of what had been the north wall- and before long, engulfed the numerous soldiers of the northern army that stood on New Casablanca''s streets.

    "Hold your positions!", roared one of them with difficulty. His voices quickly died with the cacophony that surrounded the area. The shock wave spread outwardly and only died after a few seconds passed.

    Under their helmets, the soldiers'' ears were ringing with a few among them injured, small rivulets of blood streamed down their cheeks as their sight trembled due to their disorientation.

    Even in their state, they didn''t drop their weapons as they could feel that the explosives didn''t stop the beasts advance. The trembling ground under their legs caused them to nearly break down as they the dense smoke around the destructed wall slowly disappear as one beast after another made its way to the city.

    The most colossal beast could easily fit inside of an ample parking, nearing the size of a small house. As for the tiniest creatures, they still toppled earth''s soldiers'' size by at least two heads and were far from being seen as trivial.

    The first group of creatures to enter the city from the massive pieces of steel and rubble came into view in the soldiers'' eyes. The wild bloodl.u.s.t that flickered in their eyes clearly showed the citizen that they had turned into preys for them.

    "Hold the formation tight!", roared of the leading figures of the northern army. His engine roared as he skillfully flew between the soldiers, readying them for the incoming physical confrontation.

    Although the citizens that used to live near the walls had been extracted into safer zones, those people were still living in a few streets nearby.

    "Do not fear about your life! Do not lose faith on your capacities as today, we will show them that we can take them down!?", his voice ringed at the end of his speech. His action went on line with his word, and he darted straight for the first line of MechSuit that would meet the army of beast.

    His hand moved, drawing a long and jagged blade from a metallic case that was part of his armor, and he stepped forward. A few brave men followed him, as the rest of the northern army positioned itself to secure every road that led to the inhabited street of the central district.

    "Every single second we will buy for the city will mean that one more life among the citizen will have a chance to be saved.", roared another one of the leading figure as he also showed the example.

    They were aware that the walls weren''t the final defense of the city, and that this event was only dangerous if they didn''t manage to hold the beast, for a certain period of time.

    The determination of the leading figures turned into a sporadic wave that spread through every individual of the northern army. They threw their weapon toward the firmament, roared with the resentment that was hanging in their souls, and darted toward the approaching beast wave, without any hesitation in their steps.

    One way or another, those men were vowed to die by the end of this day. The moment, that truth was accepted in their hearts, a change had taken place in their souls. They didn''t breakthrough mortality, but the event had nonetheless, still caused a change to happen in the core of their souls.

    Something that only a few individuals had come to understand in their life. Due to the specials events that had unfurled, a few individuals among the northern army had been blessed with that change.

    "Do not break through this formation!"

    "We are the last line of defense of the city! We fall, New Casablanca fall!", their voice contained the urgency of the moment. "We are stopping them! Right here! Right now!", engines roared as numerous figures broke the line of the northern army.

    Rays of light appeared everywhere- directed at the humongous creature- as the nuzzles of the MechSuits turned fiery red from the intense usage.

    "One minute!", roared one of the leading figures that received a long-distance message. "We have been ordered to hold one minute!"

    Johnny heard the voices, his body couldn''t help but come to a stop as his face turned unsightly. "Those f.u.c.kers never changes¡­", his muffled voice escaped from under his helmet as he resumed his advance. Walter didn''t have the time to rebuke his underling, as he haven''t heard him.

    Nonetheless, that didn''t mean that he didn''t agree with him as he also ended up finding the order hard to swallow.

    "They have truly decided to sacrifice our lives¡­", said one of the men that couldn''t help but hesitate as he saw the beast advance toward him.

    With their retreat, they had managed to quickly gain the city, precious seconds that counted more than anything to them.

    But now, one wrong step could mean their death, and with their ends would soon follow the doom of their city.

    One second passed as the army of MechSuit shot one bullet after another toward the beasts. Their action, laughable and nearly useless, as it seemed similar to an egg thrown on a mountainside. The act that would follow was excepted by both sides, to miserably fail as the northern army was far from being capable of holding the beasts inside of the city.

    "Do not take a step back!", roared on the figure that stood at the forefront of the northern army. Johnny couldn''t help but scoff as he felt that the man was asking too much. Yet, his thought was utterly opposite to his action as he didn''t move an inch from the first line of defense.

    His golden colored MechSuit stood still, his thick alloy glove standing in front of him in a defensive stance. Seconds seemed to pass slowly as every sense of the soldiers in the northern army heightened from their intense stress.

    Not even two minutes passed after the destruction of the north wall by the godly entity. And before long, the first few beasts soiled the smooth and shiny floor of New Casablanca. The steel under the massive creature splintered as numerous creeks and fissures appeared on the ground of the central district.

    It was as though each of the creature''s step was enough to cause a small earthquake to rumble through the large street. And by the time their humongous step took them to the front of the northern army, a change appeared near the back of the soldiers.

    The sounds of multiple MechSuits engines roared and rumbled as the sky was filled with numerous black figures. At the same time, as the northern army engaged the creatures on the ground, the reflection of hundreds of MechSuits appeared on the windows of the many buildings of the city.

    They had traversed the city at a lightning speed, and had done their utmost in arriving here, and had even managed to assist at the first confrontation with the beasts. They breathed a sigh of relief as they plunged downward toward the hole on the circular wall.

    Among the dozens of MechSuits that stood in the forefront of the northern army, stood the MechSuits of Johnny and Walter. Next to them, stood other experienced warriors of the city, that similarly didn''t lack any guts nor passion.

    They brave lifted their weapon toward the sky, before unleashing strong attack on the massive creature. The scene was incredible, and the MechSuits'' size were akin to the figure of David facing the tyran Goliath.

    Johnny didn''t hesitate at all before throwing himself forward. His body moved faster than ever, his waist shifted his balance as he unleashed the most vigorous box he had achieved in his life.

    The moment he executed it, he felt a clear breeze move through his body, as though he had attuned himself with the world surrounding him. His thought cleared, as he couldn''t help but feel that the strength in his fist couldn''t be stopped by any kind of wall.

    Sadly, the creature in front of him was far denser than the most robust alloy that existed in New Casablanca. And before long, Johnny''s golden gauntlet felt a compact and solid surface blocking its path.

    His fist stopped for a second, before reverting backward, throwing the tall armored body of the police officer. His body turned into a kite, and flew back in the direction of a building that stood in the corner of the street.

    In one moment, he had felt as though he could actually control the situation.

    And in the next second, his vision turned into a roller coaster before darkening with one last view directed at the destroyed north wall.

 Chapter 276 - Dooms Soft Sphere Part Two

    "Johnny!", thought Walter as he saw the action from the corner of his sight. His face paled, and a gust of air escaped from his lips as he couldn''t afford to turn his sight toward the figure of his foster son.

    The sword in his hand slipped from his hand as he lost balance after executing a deep slash toward the creature in front of him. The result of his own attack ended with his own disarmament, with a small dent as the only damage he had managed to deal with the creature.

    The monstrosity was shaped in a form similar to an elephant that had been doped on steroid, with fur spreading in every inch of its body, and a two massive pair of sharp defense that was shaped in a strange circle.

    Walter couldn''t help but feel as though he had been cornered. His blood kicked in his vein, and the experience of having fought through many dangerous battles kicked in.

    He heard a sharp object breaking through the air, his experimented ears judged the distance, and he didn''t hesitate to immediately take up a flight. His MechSuit turned into a vague figure that vibrated through the air as he skillfully dodged the stomp that had left a deep hole in the ground where he had stood.

    "This is even worse than I thought¡­", mumbled the man as he circled through the hairy monstrosity in front of him. His heart sank as he couldn''t help but doubt his keen sight when he noticed that the creature''s gaze was following his position.

    "Their height and weight are far from being a downfall to those evolved creatures.", his brain juiced out one plan after another. He knew that he couldn''t afford to not think as he was now treading on the line separating life and death. One trip could cause the end of his existence.

    He shifted his gears, raised his speed to the utmost limit, nearly stalling it in the course. But he managed to dodge the creature''s charge, and at the same time, grabbed his sword as he positioned himself behind the humongous deadly beast.

    "What the hell!?", he cursed in a blurt as he noticed the exoskeleton surrounding the creature''s weak point. It was as though cement had been dropped in the weak spot of the creature, filling them completely and turning them into a strong defense.

    He hesitated for a second- his heartbeat was heard through his ears as his body released a lethal amount of adrenaline- with the sight of the battlefield entering his precious city.

    He was aware that his position on the battlefield was one dangerous one. With him, now standing behind the gigantic mammoth shaped creature, and surrounded by a sea of evolved creature that could easily take his life with one snap at his neck.

    The action might have seemed flow, but the time it took to be executed was nearly instant. And from the moment Walter noticed the figure of Johnny flying in the corner of his sight, to the moment where he stood behind the mammoth, less than a few seconds had flowed.

    Walter felt a sharp sensation tingle his neck. His engine roared, as he once again turned into a soft firefly that pierced through the air surrounding the street filled with creatures.

    He licked his lips as his focus rose. Sounds of the ongoing carnage entered his ears as he couldn''t help but feel as though he had fallen through a dimension hole, reappearing directly inside of the ninth circle of hell. His fellow comrades'' scream of horror, accompanied by the sounds of crushed steel, caused his face to be pale even more.

    But the place where most of his worries went to was one of the buildings in the street. His gaze constantly shifted toward the second floor of the building, that quietly stood in the corner of the street where the carnage was happening, and the more he tried avoiding looking at it, the more his heart wept in worry.

    "Is he dead?", he thought as he felt as though his heart had been crushed by a steel plate. "He will live!", he reassured himself as he couldn''t help but think about the tall man''s figure.

    His idiotic, yet sincere smile had always caused him to be proud of him. His worst fear, as a father, had always been that he would depart from this troubled world before his son.

    Ten seconds passed, as Walter felt as though he was going to throw the plan of defending the city to the water. His mind screamed as he disciplined himself to contain his egoistic thoughts, and every few seconds that passed was one where he would tempt himself.

    Killing the evolved creature turned out to be simply impossible for the army of MechSuit. That act had turned from a possibility, to a complete fantasy after the first wave of soldiers went flying through the street.

    The horrifying state their armored bodies were in could make any freshly enrolled soldier throw their meager breakfast. Thankfully, none of the soldiers had the luxury of focusing on something else, and only an experienced senior like Walter could dance next to death without a care for his thought.

    "Unlikable!?", thought Walter as he stopped himself from trying to plant his sword in the neck of four meter tall bear. He avoids the creature as he flew through the densely filled street, before noticing, a small shaped monster that didn''t seem to have particularly strong defenses.

    His senses alerted him, and Walter knew that he shouldn''t try to take down such a creature. Stalling the beasts had been the mission given to the fallen northern army, and although the mission might sound like a sacrifice; with the help that was constantly arriving toward the hole in defense of New Casablanca, it soon turned out to be realizable without the death of every individual.

    Yet, the adrenaline kicking through his vein caused him to make a decision that he would instantly regret. The engine at the back of his MechSuit roared, as his figure darted toward the creature that was trying to sneak past the army of MechSuit.

    The armored soldier flew forward, with a sharp longsword in his hands, and hacked a sneaky strike aiming to assassinate the fierce creature.

    The last two days of constant battles had turned the experienced assault squad leader into an experimented battle warrior.

    His breath had been hidden, and although Walter wasn''t a properly trained martial artist, his fight as an assault squad leader in New Casablanca had caused him to develop ample skills in the fields.

    Surprise appeared in his eyes as the sensation translated by his sword wasn''t the one he had expected. His face paled as a groan of pain escaped from his throat; he didn''t hesitate at all, before his engine kicked as he flew away from the small creature.

    "That was a tremendous mistake¡­", thought the man with a somber face as blood began ticking from his right arm. He could feel that the sharp creatures claws had attacked- with an even faster might than his sneak strike- and had even cut through the tendons in his right shoulders.

    If it wasn''t for the urgency of the situation, he would have dropped his sword in panic, and was only capable of maintaining the sword in his hand with a soft grasp.

    He flew through the creatures, leaving a thin trail of blood streaming through the air behind his path, and began making his way toward the receding northern army of MechSuit. His face turned paler as he shifted his MechSuit''s gear to the utmost; a silent sigh escaped from his lips as his aged body continued sending him the result of the three days of battle.

    "I''m too old for this shit¡­", thought the man as his eyes once again moved toward the figure of his foster son. The simple action, he had executed dozens of time during the battle, caused him once again to take a hit from a creature.

    Only this time, what he received wasn''t a sharp invisible cut, but a humongous leg that deeply hit the back part of his armor. Walter coughed a mouthful of blood as he felt the engine in the back of a MechSuit turned silent, but he couldn''t think about anything as the vibration from the attack spread through every inch of his body.

    Thankfully, with a large amount of adrenaline filling his veins, the pain he had felt didn''t instantly cause him to faint. He groaned softly as his surroundings turned into strings in his sight.

    With the engine of his MechSuit turning off, flying was no longer an option, but the assault team leader couldn''t care as his body hadn''t come to a stop at all.

    His figure flew out of the street at a tremendous speed, before coming to a stop after making contact with a vehicle that had been quietly sitting in the middle of the intersection.

 Chapter 277 - Dooms Soft Sphere Part Three

    A sharp gust of air escaped from the throat of the squad police leader, and his gaze couldn''t help but turn toward the golden MechSuit embedded in the balcony of a building nearby.

    "Crap¡­ I''ve lost my attention¡­", thought the man as he felt his strength seep out of his body.

    Walter tried lifting himself up, but his MechSuit only trembled as his leg didn''t move an inch.

    His face paled as the lower area of his body was void of any feeling or sensation. It was as though they had disappeared, with a fiery sensation in his spine- spreading toward his brain- as the sole sensation that his body could feel.

    "How did we end up so powerless against them¡­", thought the experimented man that had survived many deadly trials in his life. His brain released endorphin to ease his pain, and before long, his fogged brain wandered as his mind fell toward reminiscence of the past.

    A dry laugh escaped from his lips, as he couldn''t help but remember that the beasts weren''t the end.

    The back of his mind couldn''t help but remind himself of the cultivator bomb that Fell had talked about.

    From there, his fearful thought wandered as he slowly accepted the fact that he couldn''t defend his city anymore. He could feel that his proprioception senses had been cut out of his control and that he would no longer be capable of moving.

    Sadly, Walter''s situation wasn''t the only terrible one, as numerous armored soldiers died with every passing second.

    Even with the tremendous precaution, they were taking, trying to avoid frontal assault, and stopping the beast in their advance were two- drastically -different things.

    Pile of crushed MechSuit laid in the broad street of the New Casablanca, yet the fierceness apparent in New Casablanca''s soldiers only augmented. They soon came to fully believe that the difference of strength wasn''t the type of thing that could be crossed with determination; they needed much more than that.

    If the physical strength given by a MechSuit armor would amount to 10, then those creatures'' numbers could easily topple the four digits, as their fast chain evolution was turning them into monstrosities that weren''t supposed to exist on Earth.

    Even in the middle of the battlefield, as the beasts in the first lane were taking care of the northern army, numerous monsters were focused on eating their peers as though the effect of last night''s poisonous aura was still in effect.

    Yet even with that situation, the MechSuit soldiers were forced back again and again. Soldiers came in hundreds, with twenty of them dying in the first frontal assault.

    To stop the beast in their advance, many soldiers choose the kamikaze option as the despair-filling scene made their heart thump twice in a row.

    The image of the bloodied street of their deer city enraged them, forcing them to choose the only option that could deal damage to the creatures.

    Sadly, that damage would rarely amount to more than a few burned patch of thick hair.

    Despair befall the soldier as they gazed at the army of beasts that could only be hurt by their kind. It was as though those creatures had arrived straight out of another realm, one that stood on a whole superior rank than the Earth.

    But those brave heroes fought through the bitter condition as they self explode to stop the beasts for brief moments. Milliseconds bought with the life of the soldiers that didn''t hesitate to choose the necessary option.

    During those moments, they were buying for their cities. Numerous groups from the higher-ups were making decisions about the next course of action that was set to happen.

    An energy wall would soon be formed around their city, preventing the beast from entering for a few minutes, maybe hours if the godly entities didn''t attack.

    As the authorities of the city were using their hidden cards, an elusive Battle Center had also begun making their move.

    In the split second where the beasts had entered the city, change happened to their building as the upper part of it blinked once before disappearing in the void.

    It was unknown if many lives had been gathered in the little amount of time that had past, after their contract with Fell.

    That coinciding with Fell''s memory loss due to his ego body rebirth, his mind was void of any matter related to Battle League.

    He only felt a tug in his soul, that made his step go in the direction of New Casablanca, as though Fell''s past ego body''s last remnant were forcing him with the past karma of his birthplace.

    And as the northern army was making its best to stop the beast wave from entering through the damaged wall.

    The terrible event happened once again, and three devastating attacks made massive perforations in the wall that surrounded the city; Three attacks that showed the might of the three other entities that surrounded the city, and accompanied by the strongest beast wave they had ever fought against.

    One had been virulent to the point where the thick steel had liquefied by the corrosiveness of the godly entity''s attack.

    Before long, the western, southern, and eastern army of New Casablanca would be forced the face the same destiny as the northern army.

    The walls were vowed to be destroyed after the first godly entity''s show of strength, and the order to launch was forced upon sight of his attack.

    The only problem was that the energy wall took quite the time to completely formed, and by the time shield would spread large enough to cover the city wouldn''t happen before the five minute mark.

    The moment the first creature had appeared inside of the city, large beams of light left the ground- from numerous places in the factory area that separated the Core from the Main District- and rose to the sky.

    Those beam of lights gathered enough energy, and before long, pillars of light appeared in the sky as the top of the beam of light began connecting with the other, forming a complex formation in the process.

    Before long, in the core of the complex formation arose a bubble that surrounded the Core in a protective shape. The next moment, the bubble of light that surrounded the middle part of New Casablanca began expending through the factory area, moving toward the main district.

    The technology used in it was the highest level of science New Casablanca had access to.

    Sadly, the defensive formation wasn''t a brand version and had been one used in ancient times by a past user. With the low drawback being the slowed time it took to completely take form.

    The protective bubble was expanding at a fast rate, and before long entered the range of the main district as it began making its way toward the outer wall surrounding New Casablanca.

    "Try and fasten the process!", roared one of the higher up in an urgent tone.

    "I received the information that this isn''t a process we can hasten!"

    Scene akin to these were happening everywhere around New Casablanca as the higher up saw through their holographic curved screen the horrible event on going in their city.

    "Send troupes to support the northern army!"

    At the same time, as numerous soldiers were making their way to their wall. In a particular place of the city, a large hole was slowly opening in the ground.

    The smooth silver floor was slowly parting away as a deep hole appeared in the earth. Soon, two candlelight appeared in the black hole-akin to two eyes- and the next moment, a rumbling sound escaped from the earth as the eye grew bigger as it approached the surface of the ground.

    The next moment, a green arrow streaked through the sky as it coursed toward the west wall that had just been destroyed.

    "Someone had deployed a flying battleship!", communicated a man that noticed the green-colored flying ship. It''s cutting edge wing cut through the wind with ease and left a thin line in the air behind it.

    Scenes similar to these happened as numerous rich individual from the noble took out their hidden cards in an attempt to help the soldiers.

    And what was vowed to happen happened. As a few of these flying transportation vehicle choose the option to flee.

    Sadly, their last attempt was responded by a raging attack from the many beast in the ground.

    They soon found out that helping in the protection of the wall, or fleeing away from the battle ended up with the same result as every single flying ship faced the same end.

    By the time the defensive energy bubble had grown enough to completely surround the city. No one could no longer enter or leave the city as a dense energy bubble had now wholly surrounded the vast city-state.

    The four entity''s gazed at the dense energy bubble in front of them with surprised gazes.

    In a split second, their movement stopped as they began communicating with each other.

    "Who would have thought they had this much resources?", transmitted one of the entity through the void.

    "Only a last-ditch attempt at saving their puny lives.", smoke the brilliant godly entity that had taken the north wall of the city.

 Chapter 278 - Dooms Soft Sphere Part Four

    Massive rumbles thundered in the jungle of steel where the north wall had once been. Before long, numerous massive bodies fell to the earth with a giant thud as the protective energy bubble fully expanding.

    The momentum of the protective bubble when it fully formed threw numerous beasts out of the city. Sadly, that wasn''t the case with dozens of dangerous creatures that were too deep to be affected by the protective shell.

    The soldiers in the city couldn''t help but sigh from relief as they retreated from the isolated beast that was still inside of their city. Alone, those massive creatures represented enough damage for all of them.

    None of the soldiers'' attack could make a scratch on the monsters. And none of the soldiers threw themselves on the beasts, with the intent of exploding, as they knew the effect would only stop them for a second.

    At first, the fierce beast seemed lost by the sudden disappearance of their peers. Their movement came to a stop as they gazed at the retreating armored figure of the soldiers that were moving to a safer area.

    "We need a stronger weapon!", roared one of the men as he sent quickly through a vocal communication to his superior. Even with the formation of the protective energy bubble surrounding the city, they couldn''t rest and had to deal with the monsters that were still in front of them.

    As the soldiers were thinking about ways to deal with the creatures that were inside of the wall. Changes were also happening outside of the protective bubble as the four godly entities had stopped in their advance.

    Even though the godly entities'' communication contained absolute confidence in breaking through the city, they still choose to stop in their places, as they had faced many shield formation in their life and depending on the formation, a few could even make their attack rebound on them.

    They needed to wait, as the worst scenario for them would be to get damaged by their own attack. At their level, although their defense could stand solid in front of a devastating attack, a fatal injury could still end up dangerous for them as it would them take to fully recover.

    A tenacious body that, once damaged, could turn weak for days would be a situation that none of the entities wanted. They still didn''t know if the red haired man was still alive, but their guts were entirely sure that that bastard wouldn''t take long to make his reappearance.

    "Let us test the path with beast first.", mumbled one of the entities before adding. "In the case, this energy shield isn''t capable of repelling the energy it received. Then we can simply steamroll through it with ease."

    Formless intent spread from the godly entities'' bodies and spread everywhere around them through the beast wave in a sporadic way. The order of attacking the protective bubble spread through the monster army''s rank. The monsters surrounding them didn''t take long to execute the order as they pounced the soft bubble shell that firmly resisted their attack.

    "All of those beasts'' attack are physical¡­", transmitted one of the entity to its peers. "It seems that as long as we avoid using energy attacks, we have zero risks of being damaged by the protective energy shell.

    Their eyes glowed up as they knew they could release once again resume their attack. Their formless intent spread every further through the army- at the same time, they clenched their fists as they prepared strong attack while approaching the wall- as the beast pounced with more ferocity toward the protective shell.

    Right at that moment, a transmission was spread in the void. It''s intent and signature, utterly different from the other godly entities.

    "Well, well, looks like you guys are excited to ravage this city.", the transmission was crooked- an explicit first-time usage of the technique- but still contained the mocking tone in the voice.

    "Who are you!?", the godly creatures tried to identify the location of the unidentified messenger. They spread their senses in an absurd manner as the area surrounding them, but weren''t capable of locating his exact position.

    "No need to search for me¡­ I will come for you¡­", the clear hidden message that was provokingly gathered the attention of the entities, Stopped them in their tracks of launching physical attacks at the protective energy shell.

    His intent appeared around the four godly entity from the void, and didn''t leave any trace concerning the direction of its arrival. The holy entities searched with sense, but their face turned clueless as they couldn''t find the position of the person that had communicated with them.

    "Did he finally come?!", thought the entity in the north as it turned around and gazed at the distance. A pensive expression appeared on its face as it couldn''t help but think that the action was weird.

    "Do not panic!", transmitted the entity to its peers. "This is only a strategy! Why would he announce his arrival? He is alone, while we are four!"

    His word cause changes to happen on the faces of the other entities as they couldn''t help but think about the action that had just happened.

    They gazed at the blue protective energy shell that surrounded the city as they hesitated on attacking. They feared that the moment they would begin their attack, something would appear out of nowhere, ready to assault them from the void.

    "Should we attack? Or group?", asked the entity in the west wall.

    Silence took place in their communication for a few seconds, before the entity in the south wall broke the silence that had taken place. "Why should we fear anything?", its tone contained smugness as contempt for the unknown messenger that had threatened them. It was as though the moment it learned that the menace was only a scheme; it lost fear and stopped seeing him as a threat.

    As thought, in the head of the entity that was in the south of New Casablanca, using scheme weren''t thing that energetic individual did. His intent boomed through the air in a provocative manner, and could easily be picked up as a provocation by the hidden messenger, as a come at me if you can.

    Two big steps were taken by the solidly built entity standing in the southern wall. It grumbled angrily before taking a third step, as its body turned into a blurry line that streaked toward the blue energy shield.

    "Stop me before I can turn this energy shield into oblivion!", it humphed as its eyes turned into slits. His figure pierced through, when suddenly, a hand stretched out of the void a few meters in front of him.

    A pair of sharp vivid grey eyes glinted in the void, before the figure inside of the void stepped outside of a black rift. A fair face that didn''t seem to be older than twenty, eyes of a strange color akin to a dark crimson mixed with grey that contained a terrifying calm gaze that seemed to have seen through life and death much time during its existence.

    They say that the eyes are mirrors of the soul. The youth''s eyes caused the entity in the south part of the protective bubble to be surprised by their purity and complexity.

    "You''re not that fearful then! Showing yourself this readily!"

    "Looks like your plan didn''t work, in the end, I alone am enough to take you down!", the southern entity spread its sense outwardly as its momentum rose.

    Vapors escaped from the numerous tiny pore-like holes that existing on the surface of his smooth skin. And the next moment, his figure boomed as he pierced through the sky with the triple of the speed he had before.

    The entity clenched its fist as it formed a spear hand, the direction of its flight was straight at the black haired man that was standing in its path.

    "You are still acting, little schemers?", roared the entity as it appeared in front of the youth. Toppling him from a height of three meter, its muscles bulging in a way that seemed as though they would explode.

    The air was sucked as the entity threw its attack toward the man''s neck. In front of the move, the black haired man had a straightforward reaction. He raised his hand high- a black colored sword appearing in the grasp of his hand during the simple movement- and hacked down in a swift manner.

    A black colored line appeared in front of him as a tremendously powerful slaughter aura seeped out of it. Space seemed to been carved with an elegant, thin line, that seemed of slaughter aura than line didn''t just stop at that area, but soon extended toward the entity and past it, creating a deep black rift that followed his sword''s descent.

    "Die, and disappear in the void.", a soft mumbled escaped from the youth''s lips as his hand once again moved. This time, his body moved, taking a piercing stance as he disappeared in an abrupt movement.

 Chapter 279 - Dooms Soft Sphere Part Five

    The black-haired man''s voice turned into a silent whisper in the ears of the entity that had been split in half by the thin dark line. Pain didn''t appear in the injured entity''s eyes, as he was overwhelmed by the sudden shock when faced by the power in the youth''s attack.

    The simple movement didn''t come with any momentum, but had easily split the strong creature in half. As though the edge of the youth''s blade was superimposed with a sharp corner of space itself.

    "What the¡­!?", the entity''s intent was cut short as his intent was stopped short. The black-colored sword didn''t stop as the youth''s piercing form was launched.

    Once again, it was a simple movement akin to poking a balloon filled with air. The movement could even be seen as slow, but the entity''s body had been too damaged to react to the second attack.

    Several holes the size of an apple appeared on the entity''s body, they numbered in the dozens and were oozing a purple-colored liquid that seemed to be blood. The injuries caused by the numerous stab were akin to a small black hole that grounded everything that had existed inside of the creature''s body.

    The entity in the south wall had fallen to Fell''s deadly attack in split seconds. The small contempt it had felt toward the black-haired man made him thrust in the advantage of its body, causing him to receive an attack that shocked him still for an ample amount of time to receive another one.

    The young man''s sword attack would be followed by a vast veil of darkness as his sword swallowed everything it touched. The entity''s organs were turned into dust- grinding them in bits- as spatial elements naturally mixed with his attack.

    "And that''s one.", his intent spread toward the other entities in a chilling calm that caused them a deep shock. They had felt everything that had happened and had even sensed the disappearance of their peer''s blood essence signature.

    "That dumbass! He underestimated his opponent!", roared the entity standing in front of the demolished north wall of New Casablanca. His thought spread with the wind as he ordered his ally to not be wary of their mysterious opponent.

    "Yet¡­ For him to be killed in less than three seconds¡­", fear was apparent in the communication of the entity at the west wall.

    "Do not panic! All four of us knew that he was strong enough to have taken our fifth collaborator¡­", said the entity as it confused Fell for the red-haired Akainmhar.

    "We need to regroup!", said the entity standing in front of the east wall. It seemed that its thought followed its peer in the west wall, and that Fell''s act of killing someone equal to them in less than three seconds had astonished them.

    Silence spread in their communication for a small period of ten seconds that seemed as though minute had passed. The entity in the north wall was the first to break the silence as its intent was still suffused with confidence in its capacities. As though, it was also capable of taking down the entity in the south wall in a few seconds.

    "During the short time it had attacked, I sensed a strength hovering around the second realm of cultivation¡­", he revealed in his transmitted message. "Although it seemed quite weak for a second realm cultivator, I have sensed that many types of energy are mixed inside of his body¡­"

    "A cultivator who travels through many paths¡­", mumbled one of the entities with a somber gaze.

    "One who posses strong firepower¡­"

    With the short amount of time Fell had appeared, numerous cards of his had already been revealed, as the entities would know turn weary about him. They wouldn''t under any occasion underestimate one who threaded many cultivation paths, those individuals would always end up versatile individuals, jacks of all trades that held many hidden cards.

    "Order the beasts to regroup to the north wall!", ordered the entity that was standing there in a split second. "He seems capable of high-speed movement, and might even be hearing our conversation as we speak."

    "Do not use this means of communication anymore!", he ended with a dark tone. Nonetheless, the entity on the north wall didn''t stop sending thought transmission to its peer.

    Its order had been explicitly toward the two other entities, as transmission could be backtracked to the origin of their sender, thus making it dangerous for the entities in the west and east side.

    The godly entity in the north advanced toward the north wall as it continuing laying order to its two peers. "We shall focus our firepower in one position, and take down the protective shell in one go."

    The two entities felt bitter, but they still fell silent and avoided speaking, as they began regrouping toward the north wall.

    "Why the hell is he still sending communication thoughts¡­", thought the humanoid figure in the east wall. It couldn''t help but feel frustrated by being ordered around with no means of response.

    But they were still frightened by Fell''s show of strength, and had decided to safely rejoin the north wall after spreading the same intent to the beasts around them.

    They streaked through the ground in a rapid dash that showed their alerted state- their senses were focused in their surroundings- as they avoid having any blind corner.

    At the same time, near the entity in the west wall that had been doing the same as its eastern peer, a red line streaking in the distance at the right of the entity. The red streak didn''t hide its presence as it turned into a lightning bolt that thundered through the air as it crossed the space, separating it from the godly entity near the wall of New Casablanca.

    Soon, the lightning bolt turned into a black-haired youth that was covered with a veil of golden-red colored energy. The energy covering him helped the youth move faster as he was nearly avoiding total friction with the air surrounding him.

    "He''s here!", the eastern entity spread its intent as it sends a transmission to its peer.

    "I''m coming!". An answer to his call was received near-instantly by the western entity''s senses, as the godly existence in the north began making its way toward him. "I will stall him!", thought the existence as it gazed at the figure covered with the red-golden lightning.

    A dragonic roar reverberated from the black haired youth''s body as the energy- golden in the interior, and red in the exterior- covering him spiked with the deafening sound, his hair rose at the same time his strength did as he turned once again into a streaking red lightning bolt.

    "He''s also here!?", roared the entity at the eastern wall in panic. "Are you sure about that!?", a response immediately streaked in his direction as he affirmed it once again with stress apparent in his intent.

    The godly winged entity stopped in its movement as it couldn''t help but have a grim expression in its face. "A cloning technique? An avatar?"

    "Describe the man!", he asked as he only received a single color before the complete disappearance of any other intent.

    Red.

    "What is going on?", thought the winged entity as its brain kicked in. It couldn''t help but think about many possibilities, with avatars and cloning techniques, the event could be easily explained.

    The Winged Entity knew that it should move fast, indecisiveness could cause both of the other entities to die. The best situation would be to pick the strongest one of the two, as the existence of two opponents had been confirmed.

    "I''m coming, Kha''le!". The Winged Entity said in a swift transmission, causing the entity''s heart in the east wall to sink in his chest.

    Kha''le was the name of the entity that had been monitoring the attack of the west wall, and that message caused him to feel joy in his heart as he had been terrorized by him.

    "Uluk''Han! Stall the fight for as long as possible. Avoid fighting him and flee if it is possible."

    Uluk''Han couldn''t help but curse his peer in his thought as he absolutely couldn''t flee from the red lightning bolt that had engaged him. Thankfully, he had already been wary of him, and had turned away in a rapid dash in a split second after seeing him.

    "You want to scram?", the black haired man''s thought spread around the fleeting entity. "I, Sadly, don''t think that''s a possibility for you."

    He stepped forward- lightning clapped around him as his figure was veiled by Little Gold''s dense Heaven And Earth Energy- and pierced through the air as he quickly arrived in the front of the entity, barring her the path forward.

    The entity didn''t stop in its track as it raised an arm while turning toward the right. A splash of purple energy that resembled a liquid splashed through the air, threatening to splash on the youth if he didn''t move.

    It made a small circle, and darted backward, only to come to a stop as Fell''s red figure appeared once again in the entity sight.

 Chapter 280 - Blessed Being Part One

    "Yeah, keep trying to run away.". A ghostly whisper appeared behind him, as he noticed that the veiled figure, dr.a.p.ed with red bolts of lightning of pure energy, had evaded his corrosive attack. "I will keep following you to the end of the earth. Run!", he slowly said as the entity turned into an arrow that streaked at the distance.

    Lightning thundered as the black haired man followed the humanoid entity in a relentless pursuit. The entity felt a cold shiver run down- starting from its neck- as an intense alarm sounded in its mind.

    It swiftly ducked, and rolled down on the ground in an attempt to avoid the black haired man''s attack.

    "Already rolling on the ground?"

    Fell dryly said as his hand once again moved, his figure boomed through the atmosphere as he once again tried taking the life of the creature. The high and mighty entity had lost all of its decorum as it was soon covered with large amounts of dust, after dodging Fell''s attack by a small margin.

    The strong heart of the creature had sped up as it sensed the dangerous atmosphere around the black haired man. His sword was following him everywhere he went, always a few meters behind him, and attacking him at any moment notice.

    The worst in the black haired man''s attack was that all of his slaughter intent would be hidden, till the very last moment, where it would explode around his bladed weapon, shocking the entity and flooding its mind with powerful soul attack.

    The entity couldn''t find any opening in the relentless attack she was receiving, and soon find itself forced to constantly dodge to escape from death.

    "Puny gods.", mumbled the youth as his movement speed rose. His figure pierced through the void as he completely disappeared from the surrounding of the entity.

    Her shocked gazes darted left and right as it stood still with her senses extended outwardly. Uluk'' Han couldn''t help but feel dread in his heart, as he waited for the black haired devil to reappear at any moment, ready to take away his life.

    "Where is he¡­", he thought after a minute passed. The tension in his mind hadn''t decreased, as it was actually the contrary- constantly raising with each minute that passed- and his face was soon covered with sweat.

    Did he leave?

    That thought entered the creature''s mind, causing it to feel as though it had survived a major calamity. Immediately after that, Uluk'' Han turned around one last time, gazing at every inch of the terrain surrounding him with keen sight and mind.

    His figure blurred, and the next moment, the only thing left in the surrounding of the short battle was the disappearing afterimage of Uluk'' Han. His position was changing every second that passed, with dashing steps that took it hundreds of meters forward every time they left the ground.

    Having calmed down, fury soon bloomed in his heart as the entity felt that his opponent leaving had been a disgrace. "I was forced into constantly dodging¡­", he thought with a grim expression that showed the damage his self-esteem had taken from the short fight with the black haired man.

    "It is even worse than what Thol''Yr had assessed. His strength is a whole level higher than what he had analyzed¡­", he mumbled as he couldn''t help but feel the might of the red-golden colored lightning energy that covered the youth''s body. And that black colored sword, that appeared as though it was a beast in his mind.

    "The number of assets and cards he has is too many for one single individual¡­", he thought as he felt as though that man shouldn''t have appeared around such a city.

    "It''s him!", thought Uluk'' Han as he remembered the reason behind the order of their attack. "The appearance of an individual with strong potential¡­", he mumbled with a somber face. "Does it mean¡­ That he is younger than he looks like?", he thought as he couldn''t help but refuse the possibility.

    "I need to regroup with the two others¡­". His heart went cold as he couldn''t imagine what would happen if the two red individuals grouped together. "If the second person is his avatar, then I can''t fathom what level his cultivation is truly at¡­"

    Uluk'' Han had vastly overestimated the real cultivation base of Fell, as the fight had left deep, lasting memory of his terrible attacks. The only for him to face that youth would be to liberate the full extent of his strength, and that wasn''t something he wanted to do, as it would leave him in a weakened and defenseless state afterward.

    "I can''t even alert the other two as it would give away my position and intention of regrouping with them¡­", he mumbled as his body continued advancing toward the north wall.

    Due to the dense energy bubble that surrounded the city, he couldn''t directly cross over the city and had to make the whole travel to the north wall before rejoining the east side where his two peers were at.

    "Are you still holding on, Uluk'' Han?", asked Thol''Yr as his intent rush at the west side of New Casablanca. The entity hesitated; it waited for a few seconds, unaware if it should respond or not.

    Then, the fuming and explosive anger he had been feeling caused him to regain his confidence. His intent condensed close to his in a formless manner and was spread in an arrow shaped before being sent toward the two entities in the east side of the city.

    "I''m alive. The black haired youth have left after a few fist exchanges."

    "Black haired?", Thol''Yr thought as his eyes opened up. "It doesn''t coincide with the red color they said before¡­", he mumbled in deep thought as his gigantic wing flapped and vibrated at a fast speed.

    His eyes glinted sharply before Thol''Yr figure turned into a piercing arrow that streaked through the sky, traveling at a great speed toward the position of the other entity named Kha''le.

    "This matter is too strange¡­", he mumbled as he couldn''t understand how someone this strong could exist in the city. His cultivation had already entered the third realm, and his peers were standing solidly in the peak of the second realm.

    Genius capable of jumping rank to take down superior graded cultivator could be found in every planet, but the more advanced a cultivator would become, the lower the chance of that happening would be. As the difference between each realm would become humongous.

    Usually, a second realm cultivator could amount by himself to an army of hundreds of first realm cultivators. Be it the quantity or purity of their energy; jumping ranks was never something that could happen in the higher realms.

    "A second realm cultivator capable of taking us down this fast¡­". He mumbled as the more he thought about it, the more the entire scenario was turning strange in his mind, as though he was missing a big picture from the gigantic canvas of New Casablanca.

    In one minute, Thol''Yr arrived on the east side of New Casablanca. He brushed his muddled thought in the back of his head as he focused his senses on detecting his peer.

    "Where are they?", he mumbled as his clear eyes closed. His senses exploded outwardly as every life form existing around him appeared in his mind. Light curved around him, as though attracted by a small spot existing between his eyebrows, and his face disappeared as he executed a strange detection technique.

    "As long as light exists. I can sense anything¡­", he mumbled as a smile appeared on his lips. "There!", he mumbled as he felt the powerful blood essence- akin to a volcano erupting- in the distance near the extremity in the East region outside of New Casablanca.

    His wings resumed their works as he turned into a blinding white arrow that cut through the clouds in the sky, leaving a long line in a part of the firmament above the city. His high speed made him cross miles with every second passing, as he saw a red explosion arise from a distance.

    The explosion''s size was enormous as it rose tons of cloud particles that gathered into a gigantic mushroom in the sky. The mushroom soon dissipated, with only a small red dot in the distance as a vestige of its existence.

    "He is having difficulties!", sensed Thol''Yr as he gazed at the phenomenon in the distance.

    It was as though a brilliant flame had been birthed in the middle of the night, it gathered his attention in a short span of time, as he maneuvered himself through the air before streaking toward the flame''s direction.

    As he approached, the minuscule red dot grew in height as it turned into a brilliant flame. By the time he approached enough to notice the figure of a man dr.a.p.ed in a veil of thick red vivid flames, fine and long red hair- of the same color as the energy around the figure- danced in the wind.

 Chapter 281 - Blessed Being Part Two

    Thol''Yr felt the potent and powerful blood essence produced by the body of the red haired man. His head danced with the wind as he gazed at the new arriving winged humanoid figure.

    Strong! Akainmhar''s first impression of the flying figure- at the head of the group of godly existence- that had appeared was that the man was strong.

    His pure and holy winged human like body, albeit well defined and muscle, didn''t hide the strength hidden in it. Akainmhar''s senses screamed danger as the humanoid creature in front of him caused his skin to crawl.

    His senses didn''t lie to him as pure excitement made his skin shiver as he felt that he had finally found an opponent that would force him to go past his limits.

    Compared to how he looked, Akainmhar wasn''t young at all and was closer to Sifiso''s age than to Fell''s age. The strong body cultivator had fought many times throughout his life, exceeding his limit through fights as he shed his blood and sweat in pursuit of his martial ideal.

    The discovery of his blood treasure caused him to develop even faster, making him quickly attain the peak of the second realm of body cultivation.

    But then, he had stagnated for the past twenty years, incapable of taking a step toward that mythical third realm. Through those many dry years, he had come to find his lacking truth. He needed to bet once again his life in the line against a strong opponent.

    Sadly, rare were those who could face him in the second realm, and even rarer those that could force him through his limit. With those factors, and the fact that a being with a strength similar to the third step couldn''t be found in any corner.

    And it was only because the red haired man had smelled the turmoil incoming to this city that he had decided to come back after nearly half a century had passed.

    The winged being gazed at the man in front of it. Its eyes turned into slits as it saw a mangled figure laying in the floor, arms locked in a direction where they should be, broken legs with injuries where a shiny yellow bone could be seen. But the worst was the head that was crushed in the same way as one would do with a watermelon.

    Yet he also noticed that the life force of Kha''Le was coursing through his body, hovering narrowly near death''s door as his powerful vitality tried healing him.

    "Looks like I will be needing this.", exclaimed the red haired man in a nonchalant way. And akin to the way one would pluck an apple from a table- through the injury laying everywhere on the creature''s body- he plucked the abundant blood essence with an activation of his treasure.

    Akainmhar slowly lifted his hand toward the bloodied living carcass that was trying to regenerate. The winged entity felt an alarm rung through her mind as he understood the intent of the red haired man''s action. He moved into action, but the treasure''s effect had taken place nearly instantly.

    "How dare you!?", he roared as he felt that he had been insulted.

    Killing someone he had considered his peer- albeit he always deemed himself as the rightful superior and leader due to his statue and strength- had caused his to feel insulted, and even mocked as he always saw his peer''s life as valuable assets for the organization behind them.

    "Yeah, why wouldn''t I?", responded the red haired man as he ignored the blatant threat. He blocked the winged entity through his path toward Kha''Le. A confident grin appeared on his face as he began absorbing the blood essence in the godly entity. He had already killed one of them and had put another in a state nearly similar to the first one, finishing his job wouldn''t make a difference as he had already considered them as prey.

    Thousands of thin streams of a red bubbling blood essence flew out from the dying entity. They coursed through the air in a steady speed before disappearing the moment they made contact with Akainmhar.

    The treasure sensed the urgency in its user as it accelerated the process of the absorption, with a red flash of light glinting twice before disappearing the next moment. Changes took place in the thin stream of blood essence that bulged in an instant, nearly every drop of blood essence in the entity disappeared from his dead corpse.

    As sudden was the red flash of light, the absorption of the blood essence sped to the point where it ended the moment the flash of light disappeared.

    Silence preceded the action as the winged entity didn''t move for a few seconds. The pure and beautiful face had taken a sudden turn from anger to being completely void of any expression, and as time passed, the expression on the face darkened till it could be seen as being grim.

    "Good! Good! Good!". A smile appeared on the entity''s face as its intent spread everywhere around it. "For having to find a fine treasure, and not having lost it to anyone before, I can only reward you with death."

    "I shall not mourn his death as it will be in my benefits!", his winged opened widely as light gathered toward him in a godly manner. The surroundings of the red haired man turned dark as every speck of light existing there gathered on the godly entity, that now scintillated brightly like the sun did in the sky every day.

    Time seemed to come to a stop as the winged entity began lifting its hand. The power shared by the cultivator of the third realm seeped out of its pore as it began slowly lifting one his hands forward. He was pointing his finger straight at the red haired man.

    In the eyes of the red haired man, his sight had been nearly negated by the blinding effect of the light surrounding the winged entity. By now, he relied fully on his other senses to determine the position of the man in front of him. For someone like him, every single one of his senses alone could do the job when it came to judge the position of an opponent.

    Light orbs continued gathering around the winged man before traveling toward the finger that was in the process of being lifted.

    The action disappeared in a split second. In the next moment, the red haired man sensed a drop in temperature in his surroundings. An alarm rang in his mind as he knew that he needed to move.

    "If I don''t dodge this attack, I will die!", he thought as he knew that his body would completely disintegrate from the man''s attack if he didn''t react in that instant.

    His leg moved- bulging in a split second as he crouched down- and the soil under his leg turned into dust. Usually, in a situation like these, with one second realm cultivator fighting a third realm cultivation, one would generally avoid making a frontal assault when facing an attack.

    But that was exactly what the red haired man decided to do. In that split second, he judged that the short distance separating them was negligible from existence like them.

    Crack! The red haired man appeared in front of the winged entity. His red hair was standing tall on his head as numerous veins had turned his body into a terrifying sight to behold.

    "Pointing at strangers is quite impolite!", he exclaimed softly as he didn''t stop in his movement after breaking one finger.

    Pain filled the entity''s mind as it seemed to have forgotten the pain of being injured through its many years of being a third realm cultivator. Its eyes focused the moment he saw the red haired man began moving toward another stance.

    He slithered through his arm and grabbed his shoulder as he tried taking the whole arm out with a mystical locking technique.

    A grim expression appeared on the winged entity''s expression, if look could kill, then the angel like entity''s look would have already taken the soul of all of the red haired man''s ancestry. His winged blinked as they turned a pure color of white, sublime, and holy as though they had been taken out of an angel''s body.

    His feather glittered as they released the light they had been absorbing. A blinding flash of light surprised the red haired man, and a steaming hot sensation spread to the skin that was in contact with the winged entity''s body.

    It was as though the light particle hovering around the winged entity became agitated as the energy they release rose in an instant. Then, the winged entity''s body blinked, as the red haired man felt the lock he had on the man disappear with it.

    "I expected at least that of the third realm¡­", mumbled the red haired man with piercing eyes as he sighed before turning to the place where the winged entity had appeared.

 Chapter 282 - Blessed Being Part Three

    The skin of the winged entity was still in the process of blinking dozens of times each second that passed, scintillating with a powerful light that made his figure challenging to keep sight locked on.

    Tsk- Akainmhar clicked his tongue as he felt that the opportunity was a good one. The moment he had broke the finger, he had been ready to disassemble every joint in the entity''s humanoid body before stopping. Sadly, the angel-like existence had strength on par with the third realm of cultivation, making it capable of many incredible feats.

    Her winged flapped, and the entity''s body turned transparent as he disappeared. It wasn''t that his body was moving too fast, making it difficult to track, but simply that his immaculate body had turned into a matter similar to light.

    The red haired man grumbled in annoyance as he massaged his lean shoulders. His hand moved to his neck, closing his eyes in the process, and seeming utterly unfazed by the entity''s troublesome technique.

    Every minute wave frequency that traveled through the air turned into a buzzing noise in the red haired man''s ears, as he focused his entire mind to his hearing sense. Time seemed to come to a standstill as his brain began analyzing the hundreds of different sounds that were caught on by his sharp ears.

    "Not this one¡­ This one is too short¡­ It should be a repetitive , or a continuous sound¡­", he mumbled as he tried detecting the position of the winged entity.

    Then, he felt a brush in the air, akin to a short strand of hair brushing through the air, but the continuous sound was even more distinct and minute. He turned to his left, and without any hesitation, threw a simple right handed punch, his punch pierced through the air as it hit an empty spot of space.

    But his fist received a completely different sensation. It was the sensation that one would feel when punching the mouth of someone, a very simple feeling that Akainmhar had gotten used to through his life.

    "Disappearing from my sight isn''t enough, my good Angel.". Taunted Akainmar with a grin on his lips, as he looked at the place where he sent Thol''Yr.

    The figure of the winged entity reappeared in the direction where the red haired man was facing, with blood trickling down his lips.

    "Don''t look at me like that. I''ve punched people my whole life¡­ People of all weight and shape, some were technically beast but were also capable of thought. Kinda like your friend, before.", he added without breaking sight from a Thol''Yr that was looking at him with apparent anger seeping out of his crystalline eyes.

    "Turning your body into light particles won''t change anything as I''ll simply hit you the moment your body will shift to being physical.", continued Akainmhar as a drop of blood tumbled down his fingers.

    His eyes fell to his hands, And his expression changed as he felt an annoying sensation spread inside of his flesh.

    "Looks like you finally noticed.", the angel like entity finally spoke. Her lips opened as it spoke another language than the red haired man, but nonetheless, the meaning and intent of his speech was fully understood by Akainmhar.

    Akainmhar looked at the angelic faced entity in front of it. The haughty expression on the godly being''s face caused a few veins to pop on his face, as he took a step forward his lifted his right fist ahead.

    "This little amount of damage means nothing.", exclaimed the red haired man as he tightened his fist in an instant. His forearms muscle bulged as his fist turned denser than the most durable steel alloy. Inside of his hand, had been white volatile particle moving through his blood and flesh fibers, dealing damage to his body with the passing seconds.

    His body hardened in a split second, trapping the small light particle that had made their ways under his skin, and crushed them with the strength that lied through his entire being. He released his fist and waved his hand slightly as he noticed that he had destroyed the energy of the winged entity.

    Thankfully, he had noticed in time, or the sneak bomb attack could have slowly grown to the point where his entire right arm would have been lost.

    The small damage he had taken caused his fingers to shake slightly. But, wasn''t anything bothered to the point where he wouldn''t be able to throw his fists forward.

    "Come on, Third Realm, stop playing around and turn serious.", he mumbled annoyingly as he knew that the winged entity was just trying to abuse the unknown factor of third realm cultivators. "Or is this power truly yours?", he added as he couldn''t help but come to that thought.

    Anger flashed on the entity''s face. Darkening the perfect facial feature he had, and make him look as thought he was more of a spawn of Satan in the very moment. The red haired man''s insult had touched a sensible cord of the being as his wing opened widely, his hand rose as he lifted his arm to his sides.

    The light surrounding him moved as a strange physical phenomenon appeared to his manipulation of the light around him. Delicate curve and soft bubbles inflated in the space around him, giving the impression that a direct door to the Armageddon had been opened inside of the man.

    His wings, especially, was the place where the most phenomenon were happening as they darkened in a split second before growing in size.

    "Release.", mumbled the entity in a mighty tone. The angel turned into an avatar of god, as the terrain around him changed drastically, the soil under his leg turned into dust as an overpowering pressure was released from his wing.

    Even his own body began changing as a grey suit armor appeared starting from his wing.

    "Looks like I wasn''t far from the truth¡­", mumbled the red haired man as he noticed the changes appearing on the entity in front of him. "Those wings aren''t really yours?", he spoke calmly before adding.

    "Or should I say. Weren''t yours, before.", he continued speaking as his blood coursed through his vein. He couldn''t stop his lips, even though he felt that the entity in front of him had drastically changed in a small amount of time. "Not so talkative?¡­", he added before stopping. He controlled his blood essence treasure to send streams of pure blood essence in his veins, and began unleashing the entirety of his strength without care.

    The steaming water flowing out of his body rose in intensity, turning into a milky white substance that hovered around him.

    "Let us kill each other!", he thought as they both step forward.

    No other word left the two individual''s words as they engage in a frontal fight. Their speed rose to the limit, as they turned into luminous dots that turned the surrounding east of New Casablanca into ravaged lands.

    Every one of their moves made the air scream, nearly shredding the solid fabric of space with their godly strength. That was, especially true with the wings of the flying entity that had seemed to have turned into a sharp object, designed to split space apart.

    They soon exchanged more than hundreds of move, the red haired man''s face continued numerous small injuries as his clothes turned into confusion.

    He stood on top of a small mountain, topless, with steaming red skin that seemed to contain an erupting volcano under it. His hair danced in the wind, as though a blazing fire danced on top of his shoulders. His eyes, calmly, stared at the flying humanoid figure forward.

    The terrain surrounding him, appeared in his field of vision, as he noticed the ravage dealt by their godly strength. It was as though hundreds of bombs had been thrown in the surrounding east of New Casablanca. Deep holes, and massive rift were made on the face of the earth, and all of that in less amount of time than a few minutes.

    The face of the winged entity calmed down as he understood the strength lying in his opponent. Although his cultivation hadn''t moved to the third realm, the red haired man could be said to have taken a solid half a step inside of it.

    The strength hidden in that human''s body wasn''t anything to be trifled. His flesh and bones could turn supple as noodles, or hard as the densest steel in a split second, and the explosive blood essence coursing through him seemed to be limitless.

    "If this man attains the third realm. He will become a force to reckon!". Thol''Yr thought as he felt that he had met someone that could be considered his equal, someone worth his respect. Nonetheless, the clock couldn''t be stopped as the unstoppable fight to the death had been launched.

    A flash of light exploded as solid light pike appeared around Thor''Yr. His wing flapped quietly as dense light energy was transmitted to the materialized weapons.

 Chapter 283 - Blessed Being Part Four

    If one gazed at the surroundings, east of New Casablanca, one would gaze at a ravaged wasteland that didn''t contain any untouched paths. The ground was filled with numerous holes, and gaps were inlaid everywhere, a remnant from the war with the beasts, but mostly from the red haired Akainmhar and the winged entity, Thol''Yr.

    The result of their fight could be seen from inside of the bubble that protected the city. But the state, inside of New Casablanca, could lay back as a screaming urgency was threatening their streets.

    A pack of ten strong mutated beasts had resisted the appearance of the bubble energy shell and were still running in the smooth and clean street of New Casablanca. They laid destruction everywhere, as they followed the buzzing armored MechSuit next to them, that seemed comparably tiny when next to them.

    The monsters separated, as each of them slid in one street as they followed the vehiclse and footed soldiers that had come to face them. They killed dozens of soldiers with one wave of their gigantic limbs, and had soon become a threat to the entire city, even more, dangerous than the creature outside of their wall.

    "We need to take care of them before the energy wall disappears.", roared one of the generals that had made his way to the battlefield. He stood in the back of a vehicle, one street afar from the humongous creature that was being confronted by a small army of flying MechSuit.

    "How is the evacuation on going?", asked the man while pressing a small object hidden behind his ear lobe.

    "Seventy percent of the population is currently evacuating through the highways, and would soon make their way to the Core.", he heard a clean voice appear in his head as his red eyes glinted. His computation AI worked rapidly as he analyzed the series of events that were ongoing.

    Large graphs filled his view, with numerous rising and falling curve that showed the state of defenses of his city. He analyzed the long line of numbers as his hand began massaging his chin, before moving to his temples.

    He closed his eyes for a second, his wrinkled face relaxed slightly, before asking one last question.

    "How much time before the city is free of anyone except the armed corps?", asked the man as he opened his eyes. The humongous creature in the distance was reflected in his iris- as the soft light of the sun illuminated the street he was facing.

    He nodded, grunting in agreement with the time he had been asked to fight for. "We will hold them.", he responded before breaking contact with the logistics crew.

    "Engage them!", he roared as he gave orders. A map of the city appeared in front of him, his eyes darted left and right as he gazed at it. Large red dots of different sizes could be seen in different places of the map, some close to the point where they were touching in the screen, while some were separated by a few streets.

    The only good news he saw was that the dots were still confined in the north side of the central district of New Casablanca. The general analyzed the map, the position of the different armies, and prepared the order he was going to give. His mouth opened, as a determined and loud voice escaped from it.

    "Separate the beast by any means. Our number one goal is to lead them away, do not confront them to the point where you might lose your life."

    "Lead them, try to deal constant damage to their defenses. But do not overstep your boundaries.", his powerful voice entered the ears of the MechSuits pilot as he gave another line of order.

    "Hear me out, soldiers! Do not lose your life. We had already lost too many soldiers when the breach in the wall happened, and the war is far from over.". His fatigue and sadness flowed through the frequency released by the AI he had, touching the heart of the numerous soldiers that had survived to this point.

    Tears welled on the corner of their eyes, as they grasped their weapons in steel clench, and gazed at the evolved beast with reddened eyes. Roar escaped from their lips as their MechSuit flew close the evolved beasts, dealing damage while avoiding being killed at any cost. They fought, with nearly twenty soldiers surrounding one beast, as they tried killing it to help the soul of their brother rest in the afterlife.

    Their resentfully battle-cry spread through the city as it attained the ears of everyone in the northern army. It reverberated, with every soldier adding his roar, into one deafening sound that rose the morale of the soldiers.

    Their pent up pressure was released in one go, as they once again took hold of their arm to defend their city against the dangerous monstrosities that were running amok inside of their city.

    Their out of control action had to be taken care of, because the number of fallen MechSuit carcass laying in the street- where the northern army had held the beast wave- numbered in the hundreds.

    The paramedical corps of numerous noble families had allied with the medical team of the authorities to come here. Their goal was the save any soldier possible, and their leader''s word had been heaven-defying.

    "If a body have a wisp- a strand- of life in them, resuscitate them, do your upmost in this task, the families had agreed to use any rare resources existing their Safehold''s and Treasury."

    And as the soldiers fought the evolved beasts, and the citizens fleeing to the Core of New Casablanca, a group of forty individuals had made their way to the battlefield that happened in their city.

    The ground under their leg trembled as mutated beasts of terrifying strength were running havoc a few streets in parallel. Their hearts thumped in their chests, and nausea made numerous faces pale in the same color as white sheets. A nauseous odor assaulted their noses as an oiled, bloodied, and burned smell of flesh made their nostrils twitch.

    "Focus on the task.", exclaimed a blond haired man that stepped out of a vehicle filled with numerous resources. "Put your masks for the odor, and gloves at that as we don''t know if the blood of the beasts is toxic.", the man quietly advance forward without waiting for his peers.

    The majority of the individual in the group of forty medical expert were too troubled by the scenery in front of them. The visual picture burned their iris, as the horrid smell made their lung heavy, but they still followed the man''s call without doubting him.

    Most of them were formed of individual that didn''t hesitate at all to accept this mission. They didn''t regret coming here, and had only lost their composure from the absolute shock- that blasted their senses- of the war scenery around them.

    "We have three MechSuits with us. Do not hesitate to ask for their help if you need help with physical tasks.", he continued explaining as he moved in a spot where everyone could see him.

    "That was all, get back to work.", his tone was energetic, but his face was emotionless. This man was named Revello. He had been the leader of the medical team of one of the four main noble families.

    His whole life had been spent with a scalpel in his hands, and had grown used to seeing dead bodies through his many years in their services. He was known, and well-reputed by the higher up of the city, as one of the best doctor existing in New Casablanca. His surgical techniques didn''t come from the city, and had been studied in one of the capitals in the face of the planet.

    He sighed softly as he turned around, the steps of the forty individual behind him reverberated softly through the silent street. His message had managed to kick a fire in the guts of the people that had come with him.

    He was aware that the majority of them were capable, and talented, individual that wouldn''t need his complete supervision to work as a cohesive team. He made his way through the street, as his mind assessed the picture of the one sided battle that had happened there.

    He walked quietly as he approached the demolished north wall, and saw the thick protective bubble in the distance. He stopped in his track, as fifty meters forward, he noticed the army of evolved beasts, standing behind the transparent blue protective energy shell.

    "They stopped that!?", he mumbled as he felt a shiver crawl on his skin. He turned back, his face pale, and akin to the expression the other individual had.

    "I need to save the one that can be saved!", he mumbled in a determined way as he tried washing the horrifying image that he had seen. He began looking around him, his eyes searching for MechSuit''s carcass with intact trunks. In less than five seconds, he noticed a MechSuits buried under the wall of a building.

    The heavy metallic alloy had even crushed one of the legs of the MechSuit. "Physical assistance is needed here!", exclaimed the blond haired man loudly in a rapid tone. Sounds of engine spread from the end of the street, as two MechSuit rapidly arrived at the medic''s position.

    "Lift this wall away. We need to free this soldier. The leg might even be intact¡­", he mumbled as he moved away. He freed the way to the two green colored MechSuit that squatted swiftly, before rising in one go, lifting the heavy wall at the same process. They move a few feet diagonally, before slowly laying it on the ground.

    The blond haired man moved immediately, the moment the wall was lifted, and took out a long object similar to a screwdriver. He manipulated the screwdriver near the MechSuit, and even assembled one part of the armor to gather better data. "Positive, there is still a very shallow heartbeat. We can save this man."

    "Quickly, quickly!", he added as he knew that the life of the man could end at any moment.

 Chapter 284 - Blessed Being Part Five

    That day, many souls left the grounds of New Casablanca, some left earlier than others. While many, trapped inside their armor, that had now turned into a deadly coffin where they could only wait till death arrived.

    Thankfully the medical team sent on the north side of New Casablanca managed to arrive in time, and began saving lives among the deserted battlefield.

    All of that happened as the authorities of New Casablanca didn''t know when the energy shield would fall. The last card they had held in their defense was something they were never forced to activate. For years, it had stayed in place, never used as New Casablanca hoped never to have to use it.

    But as they saw the time it took to activate, the authorities didn''t bet their life in it and had already begun a mass evacuation of the citizen from the central district, straight to the Core. Surprisingly, no voice was raised against that, and every citizen became making their way to the Core in a massive cortege prepared by the logistic team of the authorities.

    Many eyes turned toward the central district. Worried eyes that weren''t ready to leave their cities, and their family members that had stayed there to fight. Reddened eyes from their sadness, and frail bodies from the injured soldier that had been there. The injured soldiers and those who had run away from the battlefield were also here.

    Obviously, they didn''t forget to take their MechSuits with them as they felt they could protect their family, somehow. Many citizens threw odd gaze at them, as they couldn''t understand why they weren''t on the battlefield like their family member did.

    Their heart hung in their throat, as a few individuals among the citizen threw spiteful gazes at them due to their resentment.

    "Why aren''t they there?"

    "I hope that dad isn''t injured¡­"

    "Please, God, makes it that he comes back soon¡­"

    A few prayed unknown Gods as to keep their close one safe from the hooded skeleton known as Death. The road to the Core seemed limitless, as they worry continued to rise with the time passed on the travel. Especially, when the line that made the convoy could still be seen inside of the city, showing that their departure had only started.

    There was still the long road through the factory''s that seemed to have been duplicated from the same blueprint.

    Among the citizens in convoy, a familiar figure could be seen. The man''s height was tall, with broad shoulders, and an excellent physique that could be seen everywhere in the military. But that man''s face was completely different from the rest, as fatigue and tension had made his face a sad picture.

    The eyes of the man, especially, seemed to be in the process of being ravaged by guilt. He sat in the back of a vehicle, and by his side was a petite lady that always threw a glance at him, sometimes flashing an appeasing smile that genuinely made the man feel at ease.

    During that time, a black haired man also making his way toward a place. Only his speed was utterly different from the slow- snail-like- pace of the convoy. His figure turned into a bullet that sped with the wind. His body managed to avoid friction with the surrounding air making his movement completely silent.

    He seemingly morphed with the wind, as he streaked with the wind in the direction of the North Wall. He could sense that a tremendous fight was ongoing on the east side of the city, and his sense also transmitted him that an immense mass of blood essence was amassed in the north.

    He felt a tug in his soul, as the remnant of Fell''s past intent forced him to check what was going there. "Its in my path anyway¡­", thought the black haired man as he sensed the exact direction.

    He sped through the wall as he began approaching the protective bubble surrounding the city, and moved along it as he traversed the diverse surroundings of the west part outside the city.

    Time passed quietly as he sped with the wind, and before long, in the corner of the protective energy bubble he was running along, he noticed a humongous creature trying to enter through the wall of energy in front of it.

    It tried numerous times, even through pain, made them roar deafening noises that shook the sky.

    The first thing, the black haired man noticed was their loud groan of pain, and the moment he saw the number of the beast, and immediately understood why roars could move trees.

    The earth under his legs began trembling, as numerous beasts were still running toward the energy with heavy.

    His quick steps made him divert his path from the sea of humongous creature that had begun growing to monumental heights.

    "This size¡­", thought the man as he had to lift his neck to gaze at the humongous monstrosity.

    "What an explosive blood essence!?", thought the man as he noticed that the blood essence of all of the creature was nearly identical, despite the very different features that gave the impression they weren''t part of the same species.

    His face turned serious, as he felt in deep thought for few seconds while gazing at the beasts, the clocks in his mind ticked continuously before he mumbled in low tone.

    "This isn''t natural¡­". He thought that the strength of the creatures, in front of him, wasn''t a typical prospect.

    "The place where I awoke¡­ There was this type of aura¡­ I can also feel that even my soul has been tainted by it."

    "Is that why they are ignoring me?", he thought as he began approaching them naturally. And as though Fell was their own kind, he slid between the humongous and gigantic creatures with ease. He gazed curiously at the numerous monstrosity, and before long, decided to climb on top of one to get a better view.

    With silent and weightless steps, he made his way on the body of the creature with ease. The creatures moved hazardously, but the black haired man''s legs were glued on the fur of the beast, he walked forward as he began making his way toward the center the mass of creature.

    As he approached the center of the monster beasts, he noticed that the strength of the many creatures was drastically rising. Monsters, and creatures of vast and different shapes, some looked as though they have arrived straight from mythology; Three-headed dogs, Slithering Snake that gave the impression they would fly when moving, and some that couldn''t even be described as they shared too many strange physical aspects and features.

    The monstrosities with the strongest blood essence gathered in the middle, as a small hierarchy immediately steps up the moment the winged entity had given the order. It was as though the most intelligent creatures would only take that order, give it the beasts weaker than it.

    It was as though for it, time spent resting was even more productive for the blood essence it had. As though they were operating some kind of cultivation technique, an innate activity- unconditional through every species- that every beast that had evolved to that point could do.

    Fell noticed that as he traveled through the beast wave, he analyzed its internal structure, and understood how the creature worked on order. Before long, he came to understand that it worked on the simple scale of power, the strong ordered the weak.

    "It was as though the common trait they have in their blood essence work to group them as a group of cross-species¡­", he thought as he made his way to one humongous creature that sat in the middle. Fell wanted to climb on top of it as it would give him the best view around the beast way, he also felt that in this area, the existence of those evolved species caused a change in the atmosphere.

    A slight ominous aura was apparent in the air, making the light of the sun reflect in a strange pinkish-red color that dampened the black haired man''s view. But the youth ignored it as he walked through the beasts without his sight, and before long, he stood on top of a creature that only arrived at the base of a gigantic beast.

    It was enormous to the point where one could gaze at more than half of the city from the top of its head. Fell jumped the creature''s long bony tail that could be taken for a small chain of ascending mountains.

    He climbed on them with ease and made sure to hide his breath as he began making his way toward the middle part of its body.

    If at first, he had been running straight, before long, he found himself obliged to climb with his hands and legs. Thankfully, the man didn''t found any difficulty in that, as he innately began climbing on the mountain like body with the agility of a monkey. It was as though the man had grown inside of a jungle of steel that made him adapt to any type of surroundings.

 Chapter 285 - Paradigm Shift Part One

    Aided with his agility, the man didn''t stop as he made his way to the top part of the creature''s torso. By that time, he recognized that the creature''s shape was similar to that of a lizard, that would also explain the rock-like surface of its body, that could be taken for a real mountain.

    Without breaking a sweat, he gazed downward- he noticed that the distance between the ground could already be counted in the hundreds of digits- and took support on the solid rock-like skin of the creature before his body flew upward.

    He turned into a bullet that sped along the neck of the giant creature in a seamless manner. He moved in a manner that seemed akin to a ghost, and before long, made his way to the head in an instant. He stepped in the smooth yet grained surface of the top part of the towering creature that could be taken for a building.

    He took a step toward the center of the platform like head he was standing on and sat down. "To influence something this huge¡­", he mumbled as he focused his sense on his ego body. His eyes opened, as he found himself floating inside of his soul palace. He was flying over a small isle that stood in the middle of a vast red sea.

    He descended slowly before his legs touched the soil. He crouched down and put one hand on the ground of the small patch of earth that existed in the red canvas of his soul palace.

    He felt the strong seed of power growing quietly in the small patch of soil that composed the island. Before long, he broke contact with the earth and stood up.

    He lifted his eyes to glistening purple sky that acted a ceiling to his soul palace and felt the powerful spatial element existing in the small stars there.

    Then, his eyes fell bellow, on the mass of red slaughter aura that had formed a sea, and the next moment he began stepping forward with slow yet steady steps.

    In the small world, he had built in his soul palace, he could feel a small breeze of wind push at his back, and before long, he felt the wet red liquid rise to his ankle.

    He didn''t stop as he continued delving deeper into the red sea. He didn''t feel anything particular as the sea was part of his soul palace, but as he delved deeper, a strange thing happens. The sky that should have been purple turned red as Heaven and Earth shifted inside of Fell''s soul palace.

    Changes began happening on Fell''s physical as the powerful, and potent slaughter aura in his soul was released.

    Crimson strands hair began appearing among his dense black hair, and as his ego walked through the sea, his slowly shifted to the red.

    By the time his ego body was completely engulfed by the red sea, Fell''s hair had turned completely red as a strong ominous aura began leaving his body.

    He opened his eyes, as a vivid red flashed in his eyes only this time the red stayed as a permanent color in his iris that had been almond colored.

    "Through this part of my power¡­ I might be able to order every single beast to stop their actions!", he thought as he felt that he was missing something.

    As though he lacked an arm, and his being was thus not whole.

    A slight movement appeared in space as the air in front of him opened for an instant.

    A black colored long sword appeared out of nowhere and sat softly in Fell''s soft lap. His hand patted his bladed weapon and confirmed what had been the lacking component of his plan.

    Inside of his soul palace, the purple sky- that had now become the Earth of his soul palace- moved as wave appeared from within it, the next moment a wide cut has appeared on the sky, and a powerful sword intent escaped from that fissure in the glistening purple earth.

    Fell''s hand moved as a powerful sword intent gathered around his swords, that soon began releasing a powerful slaughter aura that echoed with his own.

    And with the own slaughter aura he released, it didn''t take long for the towering beast he was sitting on to notice his presence.

    Despite her height, the beast wasn''t an aggressive type, and had only grown to this size by surviving, and obviously by being naturally taller and bigger than others.

    With the many evolutions, its natural advantage had only grown with every night, and by this day, it toppled everyone with an unreal height.

    "Stop every action!", Fell ordered succinctly as his slaughter aura sharply threatened the towering beast. His order didn''t just spread to that creature only, as his soul power flooded outwardly, turning into a powerful wave that crashed through every in the sea of monsters.

    Before long, growl resounded as the creatures weren''t used to that slaughter aura. Fell intensified the slaughter aura he released, his sword wept and released a screech through the air that reverberated with a metallic ring.

    "Stop or die!", his order was simple. And he wouldn''t accept any refusal, his blade threatened to kill and absorb the soul of the strong creature.

    The pair of slaughter aura fused, forming one sharp intent that overpowered the sea of creatures in one go. And in a domino effect, every movement in the north battlefield came to a stop. Every single evolved creature''s came to a stop, that was also true for the maddened beasts that were attacking the wall.

    Silence spread through the sea of creature, with only their breath as the sole noise in the entire area north of New Casablanca.

    "Much better.", he rose to his leg as he patted his cloth. He gazed everywhere around him, with satisfaction on his lips before glancing at the distance.

    He looked blankly in front of him, as though peering at the void, and sensed that numerous other creatures were making their way here. A change happened to his soul palace as he readied himself to depart.

    Waves appeared in the red sea that hangs high as the Heaven of his soul palace. And before long, gathered into tall waves that could already be called tsunamis, only their number was such that they only looked average.

    Fell''s pore opened up as thick slaughter aura spread from his body, slowly gathering into a cloudy red ball, and by the time that process ended. Fell''s hand held a decent sized ball of red slaughter aura as his hair slowly began reverting to being black.

    The Heaven and Earth of his soul palace had reverted to being a purple sky on top of a red sea. And the massive amount of slaughter aura he was releasing disappeared, as his ego body left the ominous embrace of the red sea.

    He glanced around as he resumed control of his body, his sword moved, as Fell ordered the sword to not absorb the ball of slaughter aura. And with the same grace, a sheet would be dr.a.p.ed on a table. The slaughter energy slowly took the shape of his sword as it turned into another layer of Soldier''s Fortune.

    Fell jumped, ordered the beast to move out of the way using the slaughter aura in Soldier''s Fortune.

    By the time he landed on the floor, an area with a ten-meter radius had been emptied.

    He landed softly, and in the same motion, the sword in his hand sped in the, his sword intent mixed with the slaughter aura, giving it an everlasting effect as he unleashed a deep cut on the soil under him.

    A second past, and the next moment, a deep rift appeared in the place where he had plunged his sword. A vivid red color flashed on the rift as his slaughter aura took hold on the wide cut.

    "With this, any beast that comes will have to absolutely accept this order, unless something stronger than this slaughter aura appears."

    This area will stay calm.", he thought as his figure quickly turned into a ghost that sped with the wind.

    Before long, the dense forest of humongous creatures ended as he found himself gazing at a deserted area.

    He looked at the distance, east of New Casablanca, and couldn''t help but feel that the ongoing battle there had risen to an incredible intensity.

    The sky there had darkened in the middle of the day, and the dark clouds weren''t the only oddity caused by their fights.

    A small wind could be felt coming from the distance, as though a pin-sized hole had been made in space, and the soft wind calmly followed behind the space attracted to that hole.

    "This strength!". He thought as he felt the energy running through his meridian speed up.

    Just being close to their fight caused the energy that was fluctuating between the first and second realm to shift with an even slower tendency.

    Sometime he would stay in the second realm for more than five seconds before falling down to the first realm.

    His breakthrough was happening naturally, aided by the seed of power that was sprouting slowly with each passing second.

 Chapter 286 - Paradigm Shift Part Two

    Thud.

    Fell''s leg kicked the ground under him, and his figure sped through the destroyed area east of New Casablanca as he continued advancing toward the fight a few kilometer forward. His sensed gripped the ground, feeling the minute vibration originating from the surreal battle happening in the distance.

    He gazed at the remnant of their fight through his eyes, noticing the destructed terrain around him, filled with the mixed energy resulting from their confrontation.

    Fell picked up numerous information as he sensed fiery volcanic energy and weightless volatile particles that scintillated in the air. At their levels, any one of their moves could leave deep gashes and injuries on the face of the Earth, that pulsed with the energy left from the attack.

    "I can pick up a type of energy similar to the other entities¡­ It''s that guy!", he thought as he remembers the strong intent in the transmission of the entities'' leader. "Then¡­ Is the other a friend, or a foe?", he mumbled as his memory was void of any knowledge that could help him.

    He put the matter in the back his mind. His eyes glinted as he gazed at the distance, his eye pupil turned grey as a potent energy of the spatial element began appearing around him.

    His figure turned vague and distance, as he took a step before disappearing through the void. His body reappeared, under one of the many layers existing inside of space, as he began making his way through a straight tunnel.

    The entire travel felt as though it had been slow, yet in reality, the moment he stepped through space, he immediately reappeared in an area closer to the ongoing battle.

    A mountain inside of his area shivered, before exploding in thousands of pieces, among two pieces could be seen two streaking arrows that seemed to have just left the rope of a bow. One red as though it was kindled crimson by the temperature on the bedrock, while the other resembled white falcon streaking through the air.

    Fell''s eyes glinted as the figure in the distance cleared in his eyes, his leg moved, as he avoided the path of the falling rocks coming from the falling mountain. The next moment, he saw a flash of light appear around the two figures, a multicolored flash of light exploded in the sky, before Fell noticed that the two individual had already moved thousands of meters from the impact of their movements.

    His head turned left, and right, as he gazed at the energy peaking in the distance, both opponents face each other thought kilometers that separated them. He couldn''t help but noticed that he was standing in the nearly in the middle of the distance separating them and swiftly took a step back.

    His step turned into a jump, as his figure turned into an arrow that repositioned himself away from the falling pieces of rocks.

    He saw the two high speeding figures arriving from the distance; in a split second, their speed drastically reduced as both opponents choose different tactics the same moment their sight was filled with the falling rocks from the destructed mountain.

    "Can I fight that¡­", he mumbled softly as he saw the figure of a red haired man rebounding on the rock.

    His hands, and legs, made small supports on the numerous rocks in front of him. Fell noticed the minute movements, and couldn''t help but be impressed with the man''s natural technique. The red haired man turned into a slithering crimson snake that slid along the rock, moving from on the another as he entered a blind spot in the field of vision of the flying entity.

    The entity''s technique was completely different, as the moment it had reappeared, it didn''t stop at any moment as its wing turned into sharp swords that destroyed anything in its passage.

    Thol''Yr''s flying figure didn''t stop for even a moment, and didn''t notice the red haired man inside of the sea of falling rocks and fist-sized pebble. It could sense that his opponent was also nearby, and it also knew that he wouldn''t be the type to flee away. As they had begun releasing their real technique, one could say that the result of their attack was a phenomenal shockwave that would send their figures tumbling away, far in the distance.

    "Where is he?", mumbled Thol''Yr in a low tone as he continued plowing through the falling rocks in his way. At some point, he stopped in his track and gazed at a normal large rock in the distance, and time seemed to come to a standstill as his mind entered an intense, focused state.

    Thol''Yr could swear that the rock had moved slightly off of its original trajectory. The difference between reality and his the results of his own computation ability made that fact bugging to his mind. Ever since he had acquired the power of attuning with light, and had broken through to the third realm, his mind had attained a state that could no longer be compared to other life forms.

    To him, even his eyes could see wavelengths that were hidden from the eyes of mortals. Radio waves, microwaves, and gamma rays hid no secret for him, as he could see that as one could when looking at the gigantic yellow sun burning in the sky.

    Yet the entity quickly resumed its movement, acting as though it didn''t notice anything and continued speeding through the falling rocks that had turned into a static asteroid that hovered in the sky.

    Fell felt a cool breeze of air in his mind, as his face had reddened slightly from focusing too much. But he didn''t stop, as he was curious about how the fight in front of him would unfurl.

    His eyes didn''t blink, as he was hell-bent on not missing any frame of the fights that was slowly happening in front of him.

    "He noticed him!", thought the black haired man as he noticed the minute change of facial expression in the winged entity. That, accompanied by the large loss of speed that happened before it, was a show that aligned with Fell''s thought.

    What had begun continued, as the red haired man slowly made his way toward a high angle that would open up the angel''s back. A smirk hangs on his face, as the goal of his action wasn''t to take the man''s life. Third Realm cultivators couldn''t be taken down like that, and he knew that the probability of his plan having already been read.

    Worst comes to worst, he only needs to close enough gap with the entity to unleash his strongest fist. A technique, he rarely used as it completely disabled the member he would use during the attack. And one could only imagine that, with a technique that sacrificed a limb for the user, could only tremendous damage to the one who receives it.

    Space-Time''s clock ticked as frames of the fight slowly overlapped in Fell''s sight. And before long, what was vowed to happen, happened as the red haired man slithering came to a stop after one last grip on a rock. Only this time, the redirection, and the power transmitted through his hands was completely different.

    The massive rock that had weighed a ton or two turned into dust as a red haired figure streaked through the air.

    "Its happening!", nearly exclaimed Fell as he felt the gust of breath accelerated down his throat in a last gasp that contrasted with the slow image his eyes were picking at that moment.

    In reality, the scene happened nearly in an instant. And from the moment Fell had appeared before the destruction of the mountain, to the moment right before the impact of the red haired man''s fist, less than three seconds had passed during all the events.

    The red haired man tightened his fists, the skin in his fist reddened before darkening, his mouth opened as a hot breath condensed into a fire that hid his face. His cloudy eyes gazed forward, as he noticed that winged entity had noticed him her wings already flying toward him in instant reaction time.

    "Yeah¡­ Just like that¡­ Continue approaching.", Akainhmar thought as he waited patiently for the right time to release his attack.

    He was aware the reflex of the winged entity could be assimilated to light speed, and that it would be only with a perfect execution, and a perfect timing that he would manage to successfully walk toward victory.

    "Blooming Sun.", those two words appeared in the corner of his mind as he unleashed his forbidden technique.

    His dark fist was sent forward without any hesitation, While a smug face appeared on the face of the entity.

    Thol''Yr had seen through every step of the red haired man, and had never been afraid of facing him in the condition he was looking for .

    Ascending him from a higher angle wouldn''t change anything, it though as it unleashed her strong wing forward- in a piercing motion that seemed to shred the fabric of space.

    "From here, my vital organs are safe, and won''t be able to cross the space in front of me without receiving instant retaliation from my legs!", Thol''Yr smiled widely as it watched the red haired man''s figure advance through the air.

 Chapter 287 - Paradigm Shift Part Three

    The body of the red haired man approached the angelic flying figure of the entity in one swift thrust. Akainmhar''s fist tightened as the winged quickly approached him, baring him the road from approaching the angelic creature standing in front of him.

    A small smirk appeared under Akainmhar before his- ablazed- right hand sped toward the right-wing as though that wing had been there forever. His fist went straight through an angle that would traverse both of the two humongous wings, and as soon as he touched the fated wings, it was as though a nuclear bomb had appeared out of nowhere.

    His darkened fist turned into blazing charcoals that roasted the pure white wings in a split second. The crystalline feather popped under the intense temperature, as part of the skeletal frame under it began oozing into a yellow-whitish liquid that spread away with the wind of the shock wave.

    A shockwave that washed away the sea of falling rock, turning them into a fine powder that whiffed with the way as they turned ablaze under the strong temperature released by the attack.

    That was all the details that entered Fell''s eyes as his body was blasted away by the shock wave. As he had been standing too far, the damage he received was negligible, as for a few seconds, he had felt that he had been trapped a warm unstoppable breeze that took him hundreds of meters away in a few seconds.

    As for the two opponents, what they felt was akin to being dropped in the middle of a bubbling planetary nucleus.

    Then, Akainmhar''s right hand turned into parched grass of savanna that was burned and roasted into a brick of carbon.

    As for Thol''Yr, the moment he felt the pain transmitted through his wind, his body felt as though it was standing in front of the impact of a nuclear bomb.

    A massive amount of ungodly heat assaulted his body, cooking it to a crisp as he felt his soft skin slowly shrivel and dry under the temperature.

    Thol''Yr powerful body managed to resist the burning damage dealt by the red haired man, and the shockwave of the attack saved him as he was swiftly thrown away by the powerful shock wave.

    His body turned into a flying kite that pierced through the air, compared to Fell, he had received much more momentum from the red haired man''s attack and ended up quickly into a dark star that streaked through the horizon.

    He softly hovered down, like a small autumn leaf, before landing silently on the burned ground under his leg. He glanced around him in surprise.

    Thud.

    He turned around, and noticed that the red haired man had landed a few dozens of meters next to him.

    His figure was sliding down the smooth ground as he drifted a few meters before coming abruptly to a stop.

    He noticed the black haired Fell standing in front of him, and glanced at him for a second, before breaking with his line of sight and raised his head ahead to the distance.

    He looked deeply at the smooth surrounding of the impact of his attack, before looking at his right hand.

    Thud.

    Stream of blood essence flooded his heart, it was as though his blood essence treasure had opened a portal with a sea of blood.

    In the next moment, his heartbeat sped as he began directing his pure and potent blood essence toward his black charcoal-like right hand that had turned a bluish smokey black.

    A few seconds passed, as he didn''t break sight from a far point of the horizon and silence spread as the red haired man healed his injuries.

    His blood treasure could send massive amounts of blood essence streaming his veins; all that would be left was for his bones and flesh to slowly reconstruct.

    His arm wouldn''t immediately be as strong as his past arm, but it would be denser and stronger when it would grow.

    Each time the red haired man was injured, his body would grow more resilient, injuries such as this could already raise his strength by a large amount when completely recovered.

    Sadly, to recover quietly wasn''t going to be possible as he knew that the entity was still alive after his attack.

    He had expected it, as he had aimed on purpose at the pair of white feathered wings.

    He had one hundred percent felt them disappear under the strength of his attack.

    Now, the massive advantage of aerial maneuverability of Thol''Yr had been drastically lessened. And he was also sure that his body must have taken some kind of damage. Nobody could leave unscathed after that attack, not even himself.

    His right arm healed slightly, before long, the dried burned flesh began peeling away, from under it could be seen a freshly grown skin.

    Although his regeneration had been lightning fast, his arm wasn''t the same as before, and the strength he would unleash with it would now be far smaller.

    "I can only do that with that.", he mumbled as he began rotation his right shoulder, and forearm, in a way that made blood circulate faster in them.

    And before long, he gazed at the black haired man standing twenty meters away from him with a meaningful look. He couldn''t help but doze of for a few seconds, as though he wasn''t sure if the man in front of him was the one he knew.

    Then, he brushed his head as there couldn''t be two youth with that kind of strength around New Casablanca. Yet he felt that the look in those eyes had changed, and even the way he looked at him was different than before.

    Akainmhar sensed that the black haired man wasn''t sure if he was a friend or a foe, and had even been dubious as to whether he should stand that close to him. "Looks like you''ve once again grown¡­", mumbled the red haired man as he broke sight with Fell.

    "He is coming, again!", he added as a steaming red color once appeared on the surface of his skin. His healthy toned colored glinted as it veered to a crimson color akin to lava.

    A flash of light appeared in the distance, with a tremendous slaughter aura that dampened the air as it advanced with Thol''Yr. He arrived once again through the air, his wing broken down and reduced to tiny bits of the wing''s skeleton that held resiliently on his scorched black back.

    Even without leg, the third realm cultivator Thol''Yr didn''t find it difficult to move through the air. Part of his legs had turned into volatile light elements that fluctuated around the lower area of his body that had transmuted into light; he hovered through the air, attaining a speed far lesser than what he was used to with his wings.

    But the- now- wingless entity hovered in the air, resolved on not stepping on the filthy ground as though it had been too used to the air. A few seconds passed, as Thol''Yr made his way to the red haired man. He could sense the potent blood essence released from his, and gritted his teeth as he resolved himself even more to kill.

    Losing his wings had made him hell-bent on robbing the man from his blood essence treasure. And now, he wouldn''t stop at anything and had decided to bet everything he had on coming out the beneficiary of this fight.

    Thol''Yr had decided that even if he had to disgrace himself, this fight would only end with his own victory. Light was the most volatile, and straightforward of all the elements existing in the universe.

    Some saw the universe as elements, other as wavelength and particles, but all when applied were about the same principles. The only difference between earthling''s term, and the mythical cultivator was a paradigm shift of centuries.

    To some extent, in many planets in the universe, science was pushed to such limits that the scientist there had begun tapping in the potential of the universal law''s. From their, science and magic had fused into one entity that couldn''t be separated¡ªtwo sides of one coin that had intertwined into one aspect.

    Thol''Yr devilish face darkened even further the moment he noticed the red haired man''s right arm, the skin of the arm had already healed to the point where it could be taken for a healthy limb if one didn''t know its state after the technique.

    Thol''Yr grounded his teeth in a fit of livid anger, numerous veins popped on his face as the light element around him became excited. They sped around him, turning into pure halo of light, some collided and released tremendously power sparks that lengthened toward the ground and released their energy in the earth.

    "Looks like my bluff had worked quite well¡­", thought the red haired man as he flashed a smug face toward Thol''Yr. His right hand rose quietly in the air, and he moved it in a provoking manner, sending a challenge to the fuming Third Realm entity.

 Chapter 288 - Paradigm Shift Part Four

    "Leave me this one. I can''t let you finish my own work.", he added before walking slowly toward the raging Thol''Yr.

    The angelic entity had now turned devilish, with grounded teeth that revealed a step of sharp canines and a gaze that made the soul of a mortal extinguish with one glance.

    Thol''Yr felt as though he had lost face the moment his feathered wings were destroyed, he felt as though all of the self-respect he felt toward himself was stolen by the red haired man. And that only through the process of killing the man in front of him, and ending the life of every citizen of this backwater town, would he finally be able to lay at ease and recover.

    His lips opened, and a low and deep gurgle escaped from his throat, as he cursed in an unknown language to empty his darkened heart. The halo of spinning light didn''t stop, and on the contrary, accelerated as they turned into white rings that continuously protected Thol''Yr.

    Black sparks filled with incredible energy generated by the momentum of two particles colliding made the surroundings of the entity turn into a hellish world that couldn''t be approached and Akainmhar was soon aware of that.

    This was the type of opponent he was looking for, that chill coursing through his body reminded him that his life could end at any wrong turn.

    He felt himself once again delve in the mentality he had in his youth, one that never really quite his body as it had been ingrained in his own cells.

    Sadly, he had only grown to the point where nothing could cause him to feel that threatening sensation.

    Years passed, with only today that this pleasurable sensation coursed once again through his body.

    He felt his skin tighten as the hair on the surface of his skin raised as though Akainmhar had been electrified.

    His pupil turned into small slits, as his body released his untapped potential to survive.

    "I get its finally time to use those years of absorptions. C''mon, throw me those reserves¡­", he ordered as he felt the Spirit of his treasure reluctantly agrees to him. Every wisp of blood essence hidden inside of his blood essence treasure began gradually making his way in his body, appearing inside of his heart as they spread to the rest of his body.

    The blood essence treasure didn''t stop, and continued spilling a pure and plenty full red stream of blood essence inside Akainmhar''s body, only leaving a small amount that laid in a puddle in the corner of the blood treasure.

    No one knew if it would be used for his recovery after the fight, or was greedily left behind by the Spirit of the precious treasure.

    "I wonder if I can hold this amount of blood essence in my veins¡­", he thought before throwing the idea in the back of his head. That was how he worked, and how he had always managed to ascend to higher realm of cultivation.

    His unconditional trust in his own body had reliably helped him breakthrough many deadly situations he had faced in his path.

    His heartbeat slowed, as the density of the blood rose, making it difficult for the muscle to pump the blood to the rest of his body. Akainmhar felt that his blood had thickened to the point where his heart was going to explode, with each pump making him feel an acute pain in his chest.

    But the battle-hardened and experienced man was unfazed by that repetitive pain, as he focused on controlling his heart. His heart slowed once again, but the sound released with every beat shook the surroundings of his body. The air moved visibly, forming soft waves that trembled as they formed echoes of his heartbeat.

    "This little amount of pain is nothing¡­". He thought as he begins moving his limbs, while advancing toward the hazy figure of Thol''Yr.

    His step synced with the deafening sound released from his chest, and with every step he took, the next one would always be louder than the previous. His momentum rose as he once again opened the dance.

    His move was simple, as a straight right punch left from his body from a completely neutral. The fluidity of his movement, and the strength behind it only stood behind the perfect fluidity of the movement of his limbs. Thol''Yr didn''t blink, and as soon as he noticed the red haired man''s action, he moved similarly into action.

    He was only half a step behind him in their tempo, but had nonetheless fast enough to react to the perfect instant right fist sent toward him. He noticed that the fist had instantly darkened during the movement, a clear execution of Sun Bloom that made a shiver ran through his mind.

    "I can''t endure it again!", he thought as he also noticed that the attack was executed with the same hand that had been damaged.

    His body glinted in a pure white light, and the white halos surrounding his body collided with each other, forming pure black lightning bolt that spread destruction. In Fell''s sight, It was as though those black lightning bolts were shredded part of space''s fabric, twisted by the humongous power of the light particle colliding.

    His mind couldn''t help but get numerous ideas as he gazed at his application of the light laws.

    "Uh¡­ It feels as though laws were malleable concepts that could be applied to execute anything¡­", a short epiphany stroke his mind softly as he felt it had surfaced from the back of his soul. As though vague shadows mumbling about the reminiscence of the past.

    His eyes didn''t quit the fight, as he began distancing himself with a light tap on the ground that sent him hurling backward.

    Thol''Yr noticed the young from the corner of his eyes. He couldn''t help but feel insulted once again by the earthling''s act, the fact that they didn''t fight together despite them being second realm cultivators intensified his rage.

    His eyes darkened as his body turned into a pure light that slid from a corner in a dense jungle of black-twisted lightning that ran havoc around him.

    The fist of the red haired man faced the sea of dense black twisted lightning bolt valiantly, he didn''t stop his charge as he pushed forward without any hesitation. An explosion surrounded, echoing with a potent and deep noise released from his chest that seemed as though it left the body of a giant.

    The density of blood essence in his fist was such that the space surrounding it vibrated, and shook from the strong power it released.

    Before long, he connected with the first black lightning spark that turned into a slithering snake and entered his body, a fire raged through his internal organs as he couldn''t help but cough a mouthful of blood, before crushing the other in one continuous motion.

    The energy in the dozens black lightning bolt spread inside of his body.

    A shiver traversed his body, as groans of bone grating pain escaped from his sore throat, it quickly caused it to bulge with plentiful of gorged vein. Blood continued splitting down from his lips, and from numerous wide gashes that had formed on his body. But his eyes didn''t leave the scintillating figure of Thol''Yr that had transformed into a glittering light life form.

    "You ain''t gonna go anyway, buddy. This fist is for ya.", he mumbled as he continued advancing steadily.

    His fist continued forward as his leg didn''t stop in their motion.

    He stepped through the distance, separated them in one heart beat. His leg moved in strange ways that made it seemed as though he was stepping through the air with the sole parts of his bare feets.

    "Light or physical, this right hand will still hit that jaw", he repeated in his thoughts as the rhythmical pattern of his advance influenced everything else.

    His heartbeat strongly thumped, the gashes in his body had already begun closing as his figure grew bigger in Thol''Yr sight.

    His relentless advance made the angelic doubt if the man could manage to attack his light body.

    "If It''s this attack!?", he thought about the technique that had roasted turned his wings into piles of dust.

    The event that had happened in the past minutes had left a deep, lasting memory in the mind of the intelligent entity.

    It feared that darkened fist more than anything, and wouldn''t dare to make any more wild bets in this fight against the red haired man.

    Thol''Yr knew that the ongoing events were going well according to his plan, even if he managed to defeat the red haired man without taking fatal injuries, he would still have to face the black haired youth.

    His endurance had fallen drastically since his wings had disappeared, knowing that, his luminous body flowed backward as Thol''Yr distanced himself from the youth''s relentless advance.

    Suddenly, Thol''Yr eyes opened widely as he felt a stream of pain in the trunk of his body, near his chest.

 Chapter 289 - Paradigm Shift Part Five

    He glanced downward, in shock, at the many holes that had appeared in his torso. Image of what had just happened surfaced on his mind as a bitter expression appeared on his lips, he opened them slowly as a mumbled escaped his lips.

    He couldn''t understand how Akainmhar had managed to keep that version of his move hidden. He felt as though he had once again fallen inside of one of his schemes.

    As for Akainmhar, it was completely obvious for him to only use attack now, as it could have been dodged if Thol''Yr had his wings. He could only count on the lightning-fast fist pounds he had unleashed on the thoracic cage of the beast.

    His fluid manipulation of Sun Bloom had been unexpected from Thol''Yr as he had only accepted the loss of his wings with the sacrifice of the red haired man''s right hand.

    It was as though his pride had swallowed that damage, and had simply come to accept that someone on par with his own strength had outsmarted him.

    But now, as he saw the damage dealt by the same hand that had plucked him from his mighty wings, made his mind fall into an abyss. His body injured body glistened, the numerous fist sized holes traversing his entire trunk began closing as his flesh squirmed and grew. The glistening intensified as his body began turning into light element, and before his long his flesh had disappeared.

    The form Thol''Yr took was difficult to describe. A strange mix between of volatile light element chaotically moved in an unknown pattern, yet even in those circ.u.mstance his facial feature and the frame of his body managed to stay similar to his fleshly body.

    "You won''t touch me anymore.", he mumbled as though tired of trying to fight the earthling in front of him in his own terrain.

    Having been hidden twice by the same technique, he could no longer accept that outcome as he completely transformed into an untouchable volatile body of light. He rose in the air rapidly, as the red haired man tried following him as the leg under him made him stop in his track.

    He felt that the attack he had unleashed, added the damage he had to take from the dense jungle of shredded space had made him push through the limit of his endurance. The blood essence in his body didn''t take long to kick in, as he

    "You are annoying, Earthling.", his intent spread in the wind in a slow tone. "This is no longer a fight between the two of us, as the entire surroundings of the city will turn into dust. You will, sadly, just be collateral damage from that."

    He mumbled as his figure rose high, and his intent spread in the distance, notably in the north wall where he had ordered the beast to amass. The small amount of particle like light element forming his face moved, as he couldn''t help but understand why the army of thousand humongous evolved creature had stopped attacking the city.

    "It had begun¡­", he mumbled as his eyes opened wide in surprise. He noticed a potent slaughter aura intertwined with a strong sword intent, and couldn''t help but began laughing widely. His eyes turned toward the youth standing in the ground down from his position, and couldn''t help but thank him in his mind.

    "The process had begun¡­", he mumbled as he launched a crystalline yet terrifying gaze toward the red haired man. Before turning into light, he disappeared quickly in the distance, with the north wall as the destination of his flight.

    "Crap!", exclaimed Akainmhar as he smelled that going to happen when he noticed that Thol''Yr was abandoning the fight. He ordered his blood essence treasure to stop sending him potent blood essence, the Spirit of the treasure agreed immediately as Akainmhar soon felt that the stream of blood essence appearing had thinned.

    His shoulders dropped low as the tension he had acc.u.mulated slipped through his pores for a split second. The numerous injuries lying on his body began disappearing as his powerful vitality kicked in, and less than dozens of seconds had passed since the disappearance of Thol''Yr, that scab had already begun forming on the smallest injuries.

    "This smells bad for the city¡­", he exclaimed toward Fell as he began massaging his tense muscles that soon softened into noodle strings. And just had he was continued to ask another thing to the silent youth, his ears picked up a chilling whisper that made him raise his guard.

    "Who are you?"

    He turned toward the origin of the voice and immediately understood what had been wrong with his perception of the black haired young man. But, now, the many small details that had comes to his mind before gathered into a cohesive thought in a form akin to a mental puzzle.

    "You aren''t Fell anymore, right?", Akainmhar asked with a thoughtful gaze toward the black haired youth. A pensive gaze appeared in his mind, as his sight didn''t quit the surroundings of the black haired young man.

    "Well¡­ This can sometimes happen when you fight too much¡­", he mumbled as he remembered numerous times in his life that people had forgotten him probably because they''ve been punched too hard in the skull, sometimes by him, sometimes by the hands of others. A lot of them were intentional, but incidents always happened in fights.

    His thought focused on the black haired cultivator in front of him. "It seems as though that wasn''t the case with you¡­", he mumbled as he thought about the memory loss, symptom of regular traumatic brain injuries. "It is as though your soul had drastically changed¡­", he mumbled in deep thoughts as he felt the powerful different energy in Fell''s body.

    His three path pulsed as they released waves of their oncoming breakthrough. "Sadly, I''ve never met someone who lost his memory due to a cultivation breakthrough¡­".

    "And I don''t see any physical injuries in your physical body."

    Fell listened to the man, as he listed the numerous events that might have happened. But he was, innately aware of a fact, that his soul had been damaged to the point where he had nearly disappeared. Unfortunately, the past event before his awakened had completely disappeared. The only thing that wasn''t lost, was the laws, and techniques that had materialized into physical entities in his Soul Palace.

    And his undying sword intent that had been passed down from the purple sky that had mixed with the last remnant of his ego body''s intent. His sword technique, had changed, but their essence survived due to them being having been deeply ingrained in his very own body. They changed, as he used the spatial element as the basis of their operations, and the strong lightning running down his meridians.

    He couldn''t help but agree with the red haired man that his body had been completely undamaged. And the moment he had made contact with it, although he hadn''t felt a sensation of not being whole, he nonetheless felt whole the moment he emerged inside of his Soul Palace.

    The red haired man shut his lips, his eyes glinted as he could only see the event explained with an extremely rare resource, or a blessing from the heavenly law themselves.

    Little did the man know that Fell had access to both of those numerous rare events that could explain his memory loss. Nonetheless, he didn''t speak anymore about the reason behind his memory loss, as he felt that a change of expression the black haired man. He opened his lips quietly, as he pointed at the distance with a straight finger.

    "You probably guessed it, but that guy there, is your enemy.", he hand changed as he showed the massive walls of the city surrounded by a transparent blue energy bubble that sheltered it from anyone entering.

    "And You, you come from that city. I don''t know much about your life, but if you''re somewhat interested, look for a certain Sifiso! He might recognize you, he lives in the center of the city behind those walls, in sympathetic slums the size of a town."

    The youth''s glinted with the clearing clouds as his eyes changed, he felt the need to go to that place, and to see that man named Sifiso.

    But, he continued listening as he wanted to know more about the current situation. On his own, he had comes to a rough understanding of the global situation of the city, but he still judged it as being superficial and flawed.

    In the end, he had only acted due to the conversation the entity were having between each other, and without them, he might have still been clueless in the areas around the city.

    "However, you can''t do that right now. As you''ve probably understood from that light bastard before, that he planned to erase that city from the face of the planet.", he added in a casual tone.

    "Despite his actual strength, he seemed to be quite lacking for someone in the Third Realm.", he thought with a sigh. Feeling that the fight hadn''t completely pushed him through his limits, and the wall separating him from the mythical Third Realm had only parched open.

 Chapter 290 - Bestial Strafe Part One

    Body cultivation came with a tremendous difficulty with every breakthrough, as even a genius fighter such as Akainmhar found it nearly impossible to take that one last step.

    "He seemed to have noticed something happening in the north wall¡­". He thought out loud slowly in a low mumbled, and raised his eyes to the sky, as he couldn''t help but notice that decision of going toward the north had been taken too suddenly.

    "You came from that direction, am I right?", he asked succinctly as he felt that Thol''Yr actions were somewhat linked to Fell. His sixth sense as a cultivation boomed, as he followed his guts and didn''t break eye contact with the youth.

    He waited patiently for an answer, as a few second quietly passed. Fell silently nodded, as he couldn''t see how him stopping the beasts could make the situation dangerous, or make the situation in advantage to Thol''Yr.

    Two options rested on the black haired man''s mind, either to follow the winged and to try and stop his plan, or forget about the past and flee away out of trouble. He had come to understand, through watching their fights, that his strength was still lacking compared to them. He felt wave appearing in the purple sky of his soul palace.

    "This isn''t something that I can avoid¡­", he mumbled and took one last at the red haired man before leaving to the north wall in a run.

    And shortly after Fell''s silent departure, the red haired man followed his steps as he also began making his way toward the north wall. He saw Fell''s figure blink in the distance, as though every one of his steps could help cross hundreds of meters in one go.

    A shocked expression appeared on Akainmhar, as he sensed the minute aftermath of energy left by Fell''s movement technique.

    Fell mixed every single movement technique he had, as he stepped toward the north wall. His senses spread away from him, as he tried gathering information from the link he had with the energy there.

    He couldn''t help but let shiver run down his back as he felt a silent whisper behind him, with a cold tingling sensation appearing on his neck.

    He nearly stopped in his movement, but as he hadn''t felt any life form in his surroundings except for his own self.

    "What was it whispering¡­", he mumbled as he hadn''t been able to hear the voice correctly. He continued advancing, with every hundred meters he crossed, a silent whisper echoing in his back.

    At some points, he nearly came to a stop, but had felt a change in the slaughter aura he had left and decided that he couldn''t lose any more time.

    He sped through the wind-moving through space whenever he could- and before long could see the border part of the wall connecting the north wall to the east wall. And came to a stop as he knew that once he approached more, he would have to face Thol''Yr alone for a certain period of time.

    In his mind, he was frankly not sure if he could face a Third Realm cultivator with his current level, but he still knew that he had to.

    He turned around, looked at the distance as he felt that the red haired man wasn''t far behind him, and that he would arrive less than two minutes after him.

    He exhaled a silent exhale before resuming his run, and just after less than two seconds after that, a silent whisper once again echoed behind him.

    Only this time, it was slightly louder, and although he didn''t understand the words, he could still vaguely understand that those were encouragement.

    Before long, with his break necking speed, after less than a minute, he could already see a beast standing next to wall in the distance. And before long, he saw another one, and only this one was slowly making its way toward the north wall.

    His eyes opened widely, as he noticed that the army of beast in the distance, had amassed to a tremendous sight.

    With their humongous sizes, it was as though towers and building of flesh, fur, and scales were slowly making their way toward the north.

    Their gigantic steps resounded rythmically, as the earth under Fell''s leg began trembling as though hundreds of trains were passing right under the earth.

    He soon made their way close to them and even climbed on one of them as he began moving through the high view of the beasts.

    Jumping from one to another, stepping through space, and reappearing in the back of a monster didn''t faze Fell, and seemingly didn''t bother the beast either as they focus on moving around the tremendous weight- they had to shoulder- that they thought off as their bodies. And before long, he detected a flash of light in the distance, as his senses picked up Thol''Yr''s intimidating intent spreading among the beasts.

    Fell felt a change happen in the creatures, as their strength had risen in the very short amount of time that had passed.

    His senses hovered around the gigantic army of bony creatures and furred monstrosities. He was noticing that the number of elite creatures appearing has augmented drastically with the fact that more beasts were arrived here by the minutes.

    Fell sensed the wave of Thol''Yr''s intent spreading through the beast army, and he couldn''t help but stop any of his movement as he turned into a statue, still as solid marble. His mind comprehended the intent, but didn''t manage to formulate it into words, yet, if the intent had to be described, then Fell could only think of it as a painting or a canvas.

    A painting of emotions and sensations that screamed and l.u.s.ted of destruction and violence. It was as though that intent had been particularly made for this moment, as though it was the key that had lacked to unlocked the potential existing in the beast army.

    Fell sensed the blood essence circulating around him speed up, even the Slaughter Aura Sea in his Soul Palace became disturbed with numerous waves nearly engulfing the small Isle. A screech was released from the Soldier''s Fortune, that had now turned red as though it had basked inside of the Red Sea.

    His sensed focused on his surroundings, and he felt that the blood essence of every beast inside of the army had been accelerated. A strange connection happened between every one of the creatures, as their blood essence began rapidly rising with numerous evolution ongoing with every second.

    Fell breathed deeply, as strands of his hair turned red, his mind cleared up as he couldn''t help but like basking in the surrounding bloodied atmosphere. A smile slowly appeared on his lips, as he felt that he was also plucking away the surroundings aura released by the beasts, adding it to his own sea of Slaughter Aura.

    The only difference was that he didn''t give away anything as even his sword had to release a small wisp of slaughter aura. Thol''Yr gazed watchfully at the sea of creatures under him, and couldn''t help but feel that the work here wouldn''t take long before it would be finished.

    After facing his recent- numerous- loss, he had come to a depressed state of mind that would only end with the termination of the work he had here. And that''s what he had to do, taking care that the cultivator''s bomb would grow naturally, and in good condition, for the bomb to have a decent effect.

    What the organization behind him wanted was to show every city of Earth that they were open to attacks such as this. All of this had only been caused by the intent behind this message.

    "Shitty planet¡­", he thought as he glanced at the distance. His luminous eyes glinted as he gazed at his sight turned into a pinpoint telescope, he saw the arriving red haired man in the distance and couldn''t help but once again curse.

    "Shitty earthling¡­ I will soon come and pluck your treasure from your dying carcass¡­", he grunted as his vague luminous figure whiffed with the wind. Once again, leaving the scene and disappearing in the distance.

    Fell couldn''t stop any of that, as the small karma he had intertwined with the Slaughter Aura he had absorbed- and the sword he had nurtured with it- ended, causing him to feel in working ticking clock behind the army of beasts.

 Chapter 291 - Bestial Strafe Part Two

    The Heaven and Earth of his Soul Palace swapped, as the crimson red viscous sea of slaughter shifted high and replaced the glistening purple sky.

    Numerous locks of hair appeared on his head, and the next moment, the aura he gave to the beast around him drastically changed. It was as though he had shifted into a high existence compared to them, and with the slaughter aura they had shared with the other creatures, the characteristic of his slaughter aura was completely different from them.

    His powering strength was immediately noticed by every entity of the beast army, added with that the recent departure of the wingless Thol''Yr. He was quickly seen, as he became the focus of the entire beast army, which immediately recognized his strength and membership to their blood kins.

    "Who the hell is this kid¡­", mumbled the red haired man as he felt the change in Fell from a distance. The only reason he had recognized him- even after the shifting of the Heaven and Earth of his blood palace- was due to the fact that he knew him, and that he had been monitoring him from the distance.

    He had wanted the extent of his growth, but the black haired man had ended up being too cautious. Or was it, naturally, Thol''Yr that had left too suddenly, not bothering anymore to fight the cultivator as he wanted to end the whole ordeal rapidly.

    The red haired man continued running forward, with his senses spread in one pinpoint direction toward the north of New Casablanca. Everything happening there entered his mind through scintillating blood essence signals that echoed and pulsed in a strange rhythmic pattern. And the moment he noticed those, his steps had already entered the range of the army of beasts, as the blood essence running inside of his body also accelerated.

    "Crap!", he cursed as he understood that he was also part of the grand scheme happening around the beasts. "The poisonous atmosphere!", he thought as he linked the ominous slaughter aura that had appeared the first night of the beasts attacks. Scenes of the two nights filled with intense slaughter surfaced in his mind, as he felt that he had already agreed to a contract he didn''t know.

    Thankfully, blood essence control was one of his strongest specialties, and his blood treasure swiftly began working as it acted in the same manner as a kidney that filtered his blood. In a sense, the analogy couldn''t be any more through as every speck of blood inside of the red haired man moved toward the treasure.

    In a few seconds, his figure turned stiff as his chiseled cheek disappeared, thinning drastically to the point where he even seemed malnutrition, and the next moment, his body would receive the purified blood as he would inflate in mere seconds.

    "Well, that wasn''t so difficult¡­", he mumbled as his mind sensed the small cloud of slaughter aura hovering in the corner of his blood treasure. "That being said¡­ What should I do with this?", he mumbled quietly as his body came to a stop. He lifted his hand softly, and pointed at the center of the beast army as the cloud of slaughter aura he had extracted from his blood essence turned into a light ray.

    The slaughter aura turned into a swift ray, that broke through the pressure released by the numerous beast before mixing with the viceral atmosphere gathered naturally around the beast army.

    "With this, I no longer have any karma with that¡­", he mumbled as advance confidently, no longer afraid to have his body react in strange ways as he was no longer affiliated with the beasts.

    "Nonetheless, that also means that they might turn aggressive in front of me¡­". he thought as he didn''t stop the swift movement of his leg- that ended up skipping dozens of feet with every supports he would take on the ground- and before long, he found himself quickly skipping through the army of evolving creatures.

    He moved between two humongous creatures, that had slowly been making their ways toward the beast waves, and that had only stopped due to his appearance. They eyed the arriving speeding red arrow watchfully, and noticed that it plunged deep inside of the evolving beast wave. The moment he entered the beast waves, the experimented blood essence cultivator felt the tremendous ongoing events raging inside of every one of the creatures.

    It was as though, every single one of the creatures was in the middle of one collective breakthrough, where every single creature''s effort acted as a boost of momentum for the rest that would shortly follow after it. A few seconds passed, as he began making his way toward Fell''s position near the middle of the massive sea of monstrosity..

    "What is this¡­", he mumbled as he felt the strong synchronicity linking every one of the creatures that formed the dense city of flesh and blood. His eyes gazed everywhere, as he made his way toward Fell''s figure in the distance while noticing the changes happening to the beasts.

    He climbed on one of the beasts- that had been standing tall as a building- and made his way to a high point of view where he stopped for a split second. A strange scene appeared in his eyes, as he noticed a strange beast slowly take shape in the distance.

    The animal it had been before the successive chain evolution could no longer be traced back, as its physical feature had turned into something that the earth wasn''t capable of birthing. Long and thin bones that could be assimilated to steel pikes used in constructions, joints appearing every few meters, running in a different angle that gave the impression that there existed no logic behind the beast''s gene.

    "It had already started¡­", he mumbled as he continued gazing at the numerous creatures. "Their genes has already gone hazardous, no longer capable of following their evolutions¡­"

    "What comes next to the losses of any coherence in the beasts genomes is that mutation will turn into the norms.", he mumbled softly as the image that came with his thought appeared in front of him through the mutated beasts.

    The somber foundation to the dark demonic structure of the beast army slowly revealed itself under the watchful eyes of Akainmhar. His eyes moved everywhere, as he soon noticed that the weaker creature was quickly growing to the point where they could face the strength released by the strongest.

    "Their shapes will no longer be anything describable, and those creature are no longer normal creature as they are furnaces¡­", his eyes rose to the sky as he felt that his logic held in line with what he was seeing, and what he had seen in the past during his life. "This is only the beginning¡­", he mumbled as he felt that those furnaces were cooking something special for the nearby city.

    "If I''m not wrong¡­ This is the bombs that Fell had spoked about before¡­", his eyes turned into slits as he felt the potent explosive energy inside of the beasts¡ªslowly nurturing the blood essence with a mystical way that shared the life form of the numerous monsters with each other.

    Even Fell''s sword had entered a strange state, as it similarly began feeding itself on the dense slaughter aura shared through the beast. The sword didn''t hesitate, as it greedily pumped clouds of the red milky slaughter aura that whiffed with the wind connecting every beast of the army into one set of meridians.

    The dense and explosive poisonous blood essence shared by the many creatures intensified, turning into a dense and powerful cloud of energy that swiftly moved from one animal to another. Their life energy spread everywhere, as an orgy of destruction was sung through their bestial throats.

    The expression on the face of the red haired man turned grim as tingling began appearing on the back of his neck. He knew that whatever was happening with beasts wasn''t anything he wanted to have to deal with. He accepted to help the city, and had even fought the entity''s leader Thol''Yr, beating him and taking him off his high pedestal.

    He feared no one, and had always acted with an intelligent, yet completely instinctive type of intent. He only threaded through his path, searching for the answers he was looking for through his cultivation. He roamed the world for years, and had ended in one of the places he had been before.

    Only to now be confronted with something he had never laid his eyes on. And that thing was still in the midst of its growth process, but had even managed to shock his sense still.

    But the confidence that had taken hold of the red haired man through his whole life made him choose another path. One when he wouldn''t avoid facing the beasts as he had already done enough, but one where he would try and push through. He breathed deeply, and exhaled for a long time before turning toward Fell''s figure that he had noticed in the distance.

    "As the one who is part of them¡­ He is the key to solving this calamity."

 Chapter 292 - Bestial Strafe Part Three

    His eyes hovered around the sea of red bubbling creatures surrounding the north of the New Casablanca, in a macabre and obscure veil that masked anything. Only roars and groans of pain and pleasure escaped the throat of the creatures that were continually raising in strength with every passing second.

    An unstoppable prospect had been lunched by Thol''Yr, one that began showing result a few minutes after the departure of the winged entity. Akainmhar didn''t know how much time was left before the changes would become complete, but he was somewhat aware that the army of beasts was still too numerous.

    "If their energy was released right now¡­ The central district and main outer layer of the city would disappear in a split second¡­", he mumbled thoughtfully as he continued analyzing the current state of the biological weapon. "In the current, It wouldn''t be surprising is the Core is left unscathed¡­", he mumbled slowly before adding.

    "But if this explosively contagious blood essence continues growing, then I''m afraid that there no single soul will survive this ordeal¡­", his face turned somber as he didn''t know the extent of power the army of the beast would attain.

    "Controlling them away doesn''t seem to be a possibility, as I''ve already cut myself from the chessboard¡­", he thought as he was aware he had taken away the link existing between him and the ominous aura. "Without that slaughter aura, it is as though I do no longer own the qualification to be part of their growth¡­", he exclaimed softly in his mind as he continued looking for a way to take care of the sea of creatures.

    "Attacking them might actually accelerate the rate of each creature''s explosive evolution. With every dead creature''s energy serving as foundations of progress for the other monsters¡­", his brain didn''t stop his work for a split second. And Akainmhar continued looking at the problem from a different perspective in his mind, and before long, came to the conclusion that he definitely couldn''t interact with the creature around him.

    A few seconds passed as Akainmhar fell once again silent for a short period of time. The internal clock of his brain accelerated as the experienced mind of Akainmhar looked for the path of survival for the city. Instinctively, his mind could only point to a specific direction that his eyes soon followed.

    A head filled with crimson red hair, the same vivid color as a pool of blood that darkened in the thickest part of his long hairs. Although both of their hair color was red, Akainmhar''s hair was more akin to a wild flame that danced with the wind, while Fell''s hair gave the impression that he had bathed in a sea of blood.

    "With him having connected this deeply with the blood essence bomb, he might be the only way to divert this explosive calamity somewhere else¡­", he mumbled thoughtfully as his leg moved once again for the first time. It coincided with the sudden breakthrough from the creature under his legs, that inflated in a way akin to a balloon before coming to a stop in an abrupt manner.

    "The crux of the problem will now become, whether that youth is still in control of his mind or did he fall in the abyss of slaughter surrounding the beasts¡­", he continued thinking as he moved from one creature to another. The sensation of the beast''s rough yet soft skin was transmitted through his legs, and before long, he had made his way to the giant creature that Fell was standing upon.

    Akainmhar''s skillfully climbed on the mountain like creatures without any difficulty, and his figure turned into a streaking red arrow that ricocheted numerous time on the monstrous mountain he was climbing on. And before long, he could see Fell''s large back and broad shoulder, dr.a.p.ed with the hair that gave the impression they had been dyed in a pool of viscous blood.

    "He doesn''t even look like the same person¡­", he mumbled as he cautiously approached the youth. He contoured him as he didn''t want to appear from his back, unaware if it would cause Fell to attack him in a fierce hazardous engage.

    He tiptoed, as though his body wasn''t even part of the same dimension as the physical matters surrounding him. His silent steps steadily took him to the front of Fell, and began approaching from the open, directly appearing in the youth''s field of view. Akainmhar noticed a movement in Fell''s blood colored pupil, and stopped in his track, he didn''t feel any aggressive intention in the youth''s eyes, but his body nonetheless came to a stop.

    "Looks like your strength grew much more than I thought¡­", mumbled Akainmhar as he felt the prickling and stinging sensation caused by Fell''s watchful gaze. A few seconds passed, and Fell broke sight from the red haired Akainmhar that slowly resumed his step toward him.

    The battle heartened Akainmhar ignored the powerful pressure surrounding Fell, and only came to a stop when less than ten meters separated the two figures. "You did recognize me¡­", he mumbled as he knew that letting someone enter this range was either a feat of power or the recognition of an allied figure.

    He couldn''t sense which one of those options was the case for Fell, but didn''t care as long as he could approach his body without any problem. "Are you in control?", exclaimed Akainmhar slowly and succinctly to the youth.

    He saw the young man silently nod toward him, but an unsightly expression soon flashed on his face as he hadn''t exactly been honest. He was in control of himself, and knew who the red haired man was, but definitely couldn''t move his body away from the mass of evolving monstrosities.

    Panic flashed on his youthful face as he tried moving toward the red haired man, but his muscles didn''t move, as though overruled by the collective intent shared through the beast. The order to evolve even further, and to develop into an explosive biological weapon had taken hold of the physique of every creature.

    "Now we can say, that you are in quite the big problem¡­", mumbled the red haired man as he approached Fell with steady steps. Soon, he was standing next to him, and his hand extended toward Fell''s chest as he sent his perception inside of the youth''s body.

    Seconds passed, as Fell didn''t force Akainmhar''s senses outside of his body, as he knew that the experimented man would be helpful in the odd situation he found himself in. A surprised mumbled escaped the lips of the red haired man, noticing that Fell hadn''t shared any blood essence with the beasts, and that only his slaughter aura had intertwined with the creatures.

    "You are even more special than I thought¡­", he mumbled as his hand left Fell''s body. He massaged his chiseled cheeks as he fell in thought for a few seconds, before adding. "Thankfully, there is no need for any purification when it comes to your own blood essence¡­"

    "You won''t evolve, and won''t develop into a monstrosity like these beasts¡­"

    "But you soul¡­ That''s a completely different matter as I don''t know the changes that might arise with this¡­", he continued before coming to a stop in his string of logical thought. "I don''t know if this is a blessing or a curse¡­ But the fact that your soul is linked to what is going on here makes everything even stranger."

    "I''d dare to bet my flesh and bones that that wingless f.u.c.ker wasn''t expecting something like this¡­", he didn''t stop speaking as he entered a monologue with the silent Fell. He moved away from Fell''s figure, and glanced at the numerous creature for an extended period of time.

    Seconds passed quietly, as they soon piled up into minutes where the beasts'' strength grew to a high point. Explosive pops resounded in numerous parts of the battlefield, as many monstrosities rose to the point where they could only implode. Their evolutions could no longer be contained in their compact body, and their genomes had degenerated to the point where the only outcome for them was to turn into nutrients for the rest.

    A downpour of a crimson sanguine liquid fell on the army of beasts, as numerous clouds rose with every few seconds that passed. "The lesser beasts will still turn into nutrient¡­", he mumbled the unbreakable rule that entered his eyes.

    With many beasts turning into streams of pure explosive blood essence, many others used that opportunity to grow to a humongous height of strength. They stood on the foundation constructed by their peers, as they faced two different outcomes. Evolving and having their genomes deprived of any logic, making them implode the second, they lost control of their strength.

    Or turn into avatars of destruction that were capable of containing the corrosive strength of the blood essence, turning into stable biological weapons of war that continued grew with time.

 Chapter 293 - Bestial Strafe Part Four

    All of that was swiftly picked up by the red haired man, his watchful gaze didn''t miss any information that entered his senses, and before long, a logical understanding of the beast army had been entirely made by him.

    His in-depth knowledge of blood essence, assisted by his blood treasure, made him deconstruct the illogical and hazardous beast wave in his mind. Its chaotic factors turned coherent under his thoughtful gaze, and before long, he turned back toward Fell.

    He soon came to notice something fundamental, one that he had missed in the beginning. The most shocking fact in the arrangement of the army of beasts was that every single animal was part of a grand formation that contained every unique creature contaminated by the explosive blood essence.

    The way their slaughter aura, and the blood essence that coursed through their veins fluctuated was all perpetrated by the formation. "Behind this hazardous bestial rampage is hidden something this abstruse¡­", he mumbled as his knowledge in a formation was too lacking compared to what he knew about blood essence.

    Formations were a rare craft in the cultivation world, something only on par with the alchemist that made the pill Fell had consumed. Obviously, not every Formation Master or Alchemist had a good life, but the talented and geniuses of those domains were usually held in high esteem in the grand Clans and Organization that stood on top of the universe.

    This formation in particular, left him baffled is at had formed when the beasts began releasing their energy and slaughter aura between each other¡ªestablishing an intricate relation that linked the stock component of each creature on a massive large scale rally of destruction.

    "This is clearly some sort of bomb¡­", he mumbled as he noticed that the blood essence of the creature that explodes would be refined by the strength of the implosion¡ªturning it even more potent as it spread through the rest of the now otherworldly creature.

    What the monsters and creatures of Earth had now turned into something that should never have appeared without any cultivator''s manipulation. In the mind of Akainmhar, the many animal could no longer be seen as just creatures, as they now were only seen as masses of organized blood essence.

    The moment that odd perception had taken place in his mind, the way he saw the formation changed as he noticed that the energy moved from one beast to another was simply refined before being moved to other beasts; Forming a humongous set of external meridians, with every creature acting as an end tunnel of each meridian.

    Through those external sets of meridians, the c.u.mulative blood essence of the beast was being refined in a way similar to a way a cultivator would strengthen himself. Cycle existed, and within those cycles was even embedded concept related to reincarnation, as every beast that implode would further enhance the essence of blood that would receive shocks and stimulations through self destruction.

    "The process is hazardous, and even chaotic, but is nonetheless, still effective¡­", he mumbled as the formation further strengthened itself with time. Every creature that died would only enhance the formation as a whole, not only fluidifying it as there would be fewer beasts, thus a shorter cycle, but would solely leave the creatures adept at being part of it.

    "What a vicious mean¡­", he mumbled as he couldn''t help but sigh as his eyes gazed at the conscious otherworldly beasts. The pain and pleasure- coming with each breakthrough they passed- was apparent in their roars filled with destructive intent.

    "They have lost their minds¡­"

    The beasts that should have been sufficiently intelligent due to having attained a level similar to a second realm cultivator begun losing that privilege. As the formation washed out their mind, turning them into empty shells of refined blood essence.

    "Can they even be called life forms anymore¡­", he thought as he felt that the entire formation in itself was working in the same a life form would cultivate. "But I don''t sense that the formation in itself is intelligent¡­", he mumbled as he knew that the formation in front of his eyes would never form a Spirit.

    The Formation would forever force itself through a path of destruction, as it had been created with that purpose. He felt a change happening toward Fell, and couldn''t help urgently toward the youth.

    He couldn''t find a way to liberate the youth from the grasp of the formation and had been looking for a solution. But his analysis of the beast wave had only ended up with more questions related to Fell''s importance in the formation.

    "I can feel that his soul had intertwined even more with the formation¡­", he mumbled as he could see with the n.a.k.e.d eye the high amount of slaughter intent entering his body, sword, and soul.

    "This matter is too strange¡­ I can''t sense any change in his blood essence, as the moment it would have raised, he would have instantly breakthrough to the second realm¡­", he once again approached the youth. He put his hand on his chest and confirmed to himself that Fell''s blood essence wasn''t contaminated with the formation.

    Only his soul and sword were utterly tainted by the slaughter aura of the formation. Be it his soul, or especially Soldier''s Fortune, both of them seemed as though they were formed straight from the stomach of the formation.

    "I can still sense that you haven''t lost to that slaughter aura.", exclaimed Akainmhar in a loud voice toward the youth in front of him. "Do not fall for it¡­ Part of your own being seems to come from the same origin as the aura released by the formation."

    "Control that part of your strength. Cultivators aren''t dictated by the energy they control, especially Soul Cultivators!", he added as a flash of light appeared around Akainmhar''s eyes.

    His eyes sharply glinted, as he gathered the small amount of soul energy that had naturally condensed in his body due to his high realm. His fist turned vague, and a lightning-fast fist was sent straight toward Fell''s head. Akainmhar contained his strength to the point where his fist didn''t deal any damage to the youth, but the energy of his soul was nonetheless sent deep in Fell''s body.

    Typically, a cultivator would naturally produce energy remarkably similar to the other cultivation system. Only that process would only happen when one would break through the third realm. Thankfully, Akainmhar had stood half a step in the third realm for nearly half a century, and his body had naturally begun producing those kinds of energies.

    His mind could naturally manipulate his will, and it was only due to the fact that he didn''t have either a soul palace or an ego body that he couldn''t use it in complex ways. Heaven and Earth energy also coursed down a few opened up meridians. It was only that Akainmhar was someone who only saw strength in the upgrade of his body.

    His fighting style, and way of life, had always made him rely on the superiority of his body, and the fact that he had been fated with a blood essence treasure showed that even destiny had helped him fully embark on that path.

    Cultivating multiple systems wasn''t a rarity, as one would naturally become adept at doing it starting from the higher realms. What was rare, was that someone began his cultivation journey with multiple systems right from the beginning.

    An old saying in the cultivation world was that every path led to the same ending. It was only that starting with multiple ways created higher and more sophisticated finishes.

    The hole inside of Fell''s body, the multicolor hole had that held his Soul Palace had now turned into a strange diagram of purple and red. A peculiar balance, made the slaughter aura sea, and the purple sky was maintained naturally by their position of Heaven and Earth. Their near balanced strength caused them to live in Fell''s soul palace without any difficulty.

    Akainmhar soul energy held together with his intent spread inside of Fell''s body toward the purple-red Soul Palace. Inside of his Soul Palace, a flash of light appeared in it as the uncolored and weak Akainmhar''s soul energy appeared in a random spot of the vast Soul Palace.

    His soul energy fused with his intent reacted to the massive energy around it, and imploded in a small radius. The size of the explosion was ridicule to the point in didn''t even create changes in the massive Soul Palace, but had only created a small wave. The little wave was- strangely, or minutely- forced to travel toward the glistening purple expand that acted like the Earth of the Soul Palace.

    The waves, filled with Akainmhar''s intent, traveled quietly, before entering the purple expand, disappearing from the Soul Palace as quickly as it appeared. The result of the red haired cultivator was nearly negligible, but just as he thought that his effort didn''t produce anything.

    A roar appeared from the glistening purple Earth. The roar was warped, and seemed to come from the distance void, as though traveling from a faraway spot in the universe.

    But nonetheless, Fell''s ego body didn''t find any difficulty in understanding the hidden message hidden in it, one that awakened a relentless intent to push forward without any hesitation.

 Chapter 294 - Bestial Strafe Part Five

    The glistening purple sky that acted like the Earth of his Soul Palace opened up. It was as though a rift had always existed inside it, one that had hidden tremendous power amidst the glassy purple expanse.

    It was as though a glassy sky had broken, and from within those numerous broken shards erupted a tremendous power that quickly acc.u.mulated into a deafening roar. The roar shook his Soul Palace, making it vibrate to the point where his ego body turned transparent for a moment.

    "Push through!", he encouraged himself as he gritted his teeth. His mind cleared up for a second, as he felt the relentless intent hidden inside of the purple expand of his Soul Palace turned into a dominant force in his body.

    The deafening roar didn''t stop at his Soul Palace, as it made its inside of his body, and even spread out in the atmosphere inside of the bestial formation.

    Akainmhar''s eyes glinted as his surprised state of mind was reflected on his iris. He recognized a few characteristics in the intent and quickly compared it with Fell''s old aura. The two sensations superimposed as he came to understand that he had awakened something deeply sleeping inside of Fell''s new ego body. Something that shouldn''t have exploded outward without some external assistance.

    "This is definitely good news¡­", he mumbled as he continued overviewing the phenomenon caused by the deafening roar. It was as though a giant had been awakened from a long sleep, as an archaic aura appeared around the young cultivator standing in front of the red haired man.

    The roar spread in the distance, turning a shrilling shock wave that reverberated through the massive formation composed of thousands of creatures.

    At first, the roar didn''t cause anything to the formation, but the power hidden in it didn''t take long to manifest, as the circuit of blood essence and slaughter aura that composed the significant parts of the formation began showing signs of dysfunction.

    Knots began appearing in the formation, as every bestial entity that had before worked as a group within the array, began acting in a singular egoistic manner.

    As if the deafening roar had awakened their shambled ego, screaming to their souls, screaming to open their eyes and to comprehend the situation they were in. As though it was stimulating them, and the dormant instinct that had stopped functioning under the bestial aray.

    Their survival instinct kicked in, as part of their consciousness awakened, and noticed the ravaged state their bodies was in.

    A few seconds after the giant''s roar reverberated out of Fell''s body, hundreds upon hundreds of beasts opened their maws and roared, chills traversed the body of Akainmhar as he felt the heretical intent in the creatures of the beast army.

    His eyes opened wide as he hadn''t expected that his interference inside of Fell''s Soul Palace would cause that to arise.

    During their roars, the beasts regained their movements as they began wreaking havoc around them.

    The strength in their bodies- no longer comparable to their past state before the initiation of the massive Formation by Thol''Yr- turned the surroundings, north of New Casablanca, into a seismic hell with humongous clouds rising from the earth.

    The sole exception, being in the beast where the pair of cultivator stood upon, that seemed also to have regained it''s consciousness- shown from the complete cessation of its absorption of energy- but had nonetheless decided to continued standing still.

    It was as though, it knew that roar that freed them had come from the humans on its back, thus making it feel favorable toward them.

    Or was it simply the terrifying build-up of energy that whiffed out of the pore of Fell''s body.

    "Crap, without the formation, those beasts have once again turned into fierce f.u.c.kers¡­", exclaimed Akainmhar as his eyes watchfully glanced at the change in behaviors of the numerous beasts. A few, enraged by the state they had been slaved out of any freedom of thought or even existence, began running havoc, killing their peers in an attempt to feel once again alive.

    A few, unusually intelligent, immediately darted out of the array of beasts, their mind hellbent of leaving the cursed array.

    Sadly, their bodies had since long been corroded into existence that shouldn''t have ever been birthed naturally. And If they could happen to stay alive- even in that state where their genomes had been turned into an indescribable follow up of error of natures- before, it was merely due to the excessive energy shared through the array that made them survive the horrifying state their bodies had been turned into.

    The first few beasts that managed to leave the formation swiftly turned into clouds of clothed blood essence that augmented the range of effect of the bestial formation.

    A formation that didn''t completely stop working, as a few beasts didn''t abandon it. No one knew if they choose that option, under their intense thirst of strength, or simply because they noticed that their bodies could no longer be saved.

    Among the beasts inside of the array, nearly a quarter of them didn''t break their connection with the formation, as the giant''s roar that escaped from Fell''s Soul Palace died down after one defiant roar from them. As for the rest, it was as though a heretical movement had been birthed among the minds of the monstrosities, one that entered a maddened state.

    Towering monstrosities launched at each other, their nightmarish jaw would snap open, biting off a chunk of flesh the size of a small house. And soon, the unmoving towering creature the pair of cultivator stood upon had turned into collateral damage of the many beasts that had been fighting nearby.

    Thankfully, the red haired Akainmhar didn''t find it difficult to send the massive creatures tumbling away toward the places where the most infighting happened among the monstrosities. But, as the towering creatures they stood upon didn''t move particularly, and wasn''t fearsome enough, it was constantly chosen as a prey making the red haired man acted more with passing seconds.

    Fell couldn''t yet moved, his mind might have received a boost from the undying intent, but he was also still under the control of the array as the enormous loss of circuit parts in the formation caused a massive influx of slaughter aura toward Fell.

    Under the loss of nearly seventy percent of the creatures, it was as though, the formation had decided to take revenge on the cultivator that had caused the loss. Making him assume the entirety of the slaughter aura contained in the formation, and due to that, would make it possible for the rest of the creature to continue evolving.

    He gritted his teeth, as he absorbed every wisp of slaughter aura inside of his own sea of slaughter, before directing the majority of it toward his sword.

    Soldier''s Fortune released wisps upon wisps of a powerful sword intent. It wasn''t Fell''s own sword intent, but one that was beginning to form inside of his sword naturally.

    Nurtured and refined by the strong slaughter aura released by the beast, this sword intent was sharp but released an animalistic vibe that made one doubt if the inside of the black colored sword didn''t contain the soul of hundreds of creatures.

    Aided by his sword, Fell didn''t find it difficult to redirect and even contain the constant influx of slaughter aura that was directed to him by the formation. But any kind of physical movement was nearly impossible, as a momentary loss of focus the frenzied aura to run havoc inside of his Soul Palace, something that he definitely didn''t want to happen.

    Thanks to the giant''s roar, the relentless intent existing in his ego body and Soul Palace completely awakened, and made the balance between the red slaughter sea and the glistening purple expanse that had been lost due to the formation, seamlessly reappear.

    Seconds continued spilling, as Akainmhar continued taking care of any monstrosity that came close to them, and by the fifth minute that passed after the roar, even he began finding it difficult to hold on in front of the successive attack.

    Sometimes, he would be forced to repel five towering creatures- the size of a small building- by himself. At some point, during a small break, his ankle rose slightly before falling back in a pendulum pattern, the movement was minute, and the impact even less noticeable.

    But the creature he stood on felt a completely different sensation, as a strong wave raged through its thick flesh and bones, making it swiftly understand that he was starting to become annoyed.

    The beast opened its humongous black hole like mouth, and a deafening roar escaped from it- extremely similar to the giant''s roar that had left Fell''s body before- and washed through the creatures hundreds of meter nearby her position. Yet, the creature didn''t move, firmly hellbent on standing there as it felt that the man that caused the appearance of the giant''s roar didn''t order her.

 Chapter 295 - Reversal. Life or Death Part One

    A prodigious tremor arose from the north of New Casablanca. It spread through the earth in a violent manner, and it was only due to the fact that the main district was constructed with top edge technology that the earthquakes produced by the army of beasts hadn''t taken down a few buildings.

    Even down the Factory District and also far away down in the slums, the deafening tremor was felt through the ground under their legs. They could only look back at a distance, their eyes worried, hoping that whatever was happening wouldn''t come here for them.

    The armed force that had stayed in the central district was the one that felt the tremor the most, and the fierce beasts that had slipped through when the energy shield had been formed had even come to a stop.

    The ground under their legs steadily moved, as though the thick layer of visibly moving earth had became imbued with life force. It could be seen shaking with the n.a.k.e.d eyes, as the solid steel that made up the floor of the solid moved in small waves.

    The armed force soon came under the decision of leaving the main district. The situation didn''t look good outside of their city, and none of them had been capable of taking down the fierce beast that was running around in their streets. Thankfully, they had held here long enough for everyone to depart from these cursed lands.

    They used the opportunity that the beasts came to a stop to disengage the creatures. A route was quickly prepared on the spot, and the numerous team formed by the armed force began regrouping while avoiding the streets where they had diverted the godly creatures. The face of the soldiers that had been in the MechSuits was complex, a stiff mixture of resentment and relief.

    Resentment from the loss they had to accept that day, and relief that everything had come to a stop from them.

    A few soldiers even slept the moment they left the range of the main district and entered deeply in the jaw of the lengthy highway that led to the slums. While others couldn''t take an eye out of the tall shining building the distance, bitterness, and rage mixed together in their sight as they gazed at their city.

    The soldiers that were enrolled from the slums couldn''t help but look at their hometown with worry. Aware that whatever they had fought in the main district would come to their families.

    As for a few, they couldn''t help but look at the distance, secretly aware that someone wouldn''t abandon that city. Those persons were the few higher-ups, and the pugilist of Gladiator''s Heaven that managed to survive the horrors of the morning. Their thoughts filled with the two individuals that were still fighting outside of their cities.

    "Will we survive through this night?", doubted someone in his mind. His thought were only the echoes of the feelings of most soldiers that feared for their urging future.

    "Please¡­ Someone¡­", prayed a few.

    The soldiers thought in the armed forces were diverse and varied, yet most of them were firmly related to the pressing insecurities related to their defense. Defenses that had been taken down one after another, with the last layer of defensebeing the energy shields that wouldn''t hold long under repetitive attacks. And the lengthy highways filled with hundreds of factories that separated the two parts of the city.

    They gazed around them with bitter thought, their mind couldn''t help but become warped by the near limitless road that taunted their mind. The factories around them were too similar- a clear conform copy- and gave the impression that the highway leading to the Core didn''t have an end.

    The lack of life around them worsened their mood, as even the automatons had been sent in the bloodied maws of the beasts.

    A morose atmosphere invaded the cortege of refugees, with only the healing troupes were doing their utmost in saving the life in the half-dead bodies they had unearthed.

    Their expressions, fierce to the point where one doubted if they weren''t the one that should fight the beasts. Only what they fought, was death itself, and the complete shutdown of the last working organs in the bodies of the saved figure.

    A doctor, in particular, took grand attention to the most damaged bodies, and challenged himself with the roughest cases. That man was Revello, a genius doctor that had been working under the four fallen families, his fame and talent was such that the four families had to regroup to secure him in their city.

    His fabled talent was only rivaled by his mystic methods, that mixed science and ancient technique, and the new fact that the Earthing had made contact with the vast universe made his skill sore even higher.

    His hands were currently deep in the inner organ of a stiff man. The victim of his revival was a broad and tall man that didn''t seem to have entered his thirties yet, but was nonetheless nearing them. The pale color of his skin, and the coldness in his shredded inner organs would have customarily been signs that the man was dead.

    Revello wouldn''t have become a genius doctor if he wasn''t somewhat curiously mad. As added to his in-depth knowledge and practical skills, came the rare resources taken from the numerous families gave him enough confidence in reviving even someone dead for a few weeks.

    "He can''t do without that part of his digestive system."

    "Now, I just need to check if the brain isn''t too damage and I can replace or regrow the damaged part¡­", he mumbled under his brain as took out a strange metallic object. The object was smooth, and was shaped similar in a way to a tablet, one that soon lighted up with a screen.

    "Hmm¡­ Good, the brain wasn''t touched.", he mumbled as he took out a case from the back of the bus like vehicle he was on. His hand skillfully moved, lifting the mallet on a table next to the body, and opening it, all of that in one fluid motion.

    A set of silvery colored surgical equipment laid bare in front of his eyes, glinting in the dark lighted insides of the vehicle.

    His eyes rose upward, noticed a small dial on the roof of the vehicle. His eyes moved as a low light flashed softly in the back of the car.

    Even with that soft light, the luminosity shouldn''t have been enough for deep surgical treatment. But that man wasn''t any kind of surgeon, he didn''t only rely on his eyes, but his full senses came to work together in a mystical way akin to a martial artist.

    Only his movement weren''t lightning fast, they didn''t made the air around his fist clap, and the space to nearly shatter. But, he had a type of agility, and preciseness, that made his movement flow in silky water like manner.

    What followed was Revello''s macabre spectacle that some would though off as practicing on a corpse, but only he knew the strength of the resource they had given them. His hand moved the small boxes that laid inside of the mallet, next to the silver surgical equipment.

    "This is the first time I held this type of material¡­", he proclaimed, excited about the premise of using them. His memory thought about the numerous interstellar method he had read, a strange technique that made use of energy and surgery to heal near-dead individuals.

    Sadly, he was already aged thirty when he came to find a cultivation technique, and he didn''t know if it was due to him being too old, or merely untalented in that domain because the results he had obtained were nowhere anything concrete.

    Spatial Energy, or Heaven and Earth energy, stayed a mystery for him through those years. But with the resources he had received from the families, he could replicate the same principle that a cultivator would use his energy for.

    His eyes fell on the corpse in front of him, as his hand began moving in a fluid automated manner. Cutting through the elastic skin, and opening parts that weren''t injured, his work only stopped at the brain that he had verified before.

    "Using those resource together, I''m sure I can replicate the same effect as the Flesh Revival Technique, adding with that a few Earthling scientific method, I can regrow his body by the time I arrive to the Core.", his mind already began thinking about every process one by one before finally making his mind to start.

    "The preparation for the Flesh Revival Technique had been made. I''m ninety-nine percent sure I can regrow his internal organs, I will only need to stitches everything back and kick some life in that heart. And everything will work, very mechanical!", he added in a satisfactory manner before starting his work.

    "Indeed very mechanical...", mumbled a man in the front part of the bus-like vehicle.

    Revello turned around, annoyed- at himself due to his intense focusing on the corpse- that the man had stayed there, and had heard him speak his heart out loud.

 Chapter 296 - Reversal. Life or Death Part Two

    The medical team tried saving the soldiers that had fought the beasts in the north part of the main district without any care about the costs nor the resources.

    They used anything available, any technique they possessed, all of that to save whatever was left alive inside of the damage corpses of the northern army that had fought to the bitter end.

    Even though a few of those soldiers preferred to rest, as they slipped away from their bodies, tired by the constant fighting they had to do. Those were usually the one that lost faith in their future, and their closed ones were no longer worth the effort they had been making.

    The doctor and surgeon in the middle of the escort weren''t gods, as although they could fix their bodies, they wouldn''t be able to make them come back to life if the patient didn''t want to. In the end, their effort would all rest on the survival instinct of the carcasses.

    "Do we have visible feedback of the beasts'' surroundings that are still in the city?", mumbled one of the generals in one of the cars of the cortege. His question was swiftly answer as he was passed a tablet by one of the men inside of the vehicle.

    His eyes fell on the metallic tablet, he pressed a few button and the next moment, several flashes of light appeared in the long vehicle as holographic screens filled the inside of the limousine shaped car.

    "Hmm¡­ Why do I feel that they had changed during the small amount of time we had left?", he asked in a harsh mutter that flashed his fear. Not even a second after that, a small voice came from the front of the vehicle, and once again cleared the doubt he had in his heart.

    "You are right, sir. Those beasts had begun facing a strong growth in the short amount of time we had left them unattached. It is as though numerous genes were taking effect at this moment due to something we cannot sense¡­", added the young man that had just spoken.

    His eyes turned bright, as he couldn''t help softly mutter that he couldn''t probably find ways to find that variable if he was given enough time.

    Sadly, what he said next didn''t attain the ears of the higher up in the vehicle, as the man continued looking at the many screens without batting an eyelid. His face turned somber by the seconds that passed, and before long, he couldn''t but turn toward the many men in the long vehicle.

    His heart dropped the moment he saw the eyes of his subordinates. Fear, incomprehension, and anger were mixed together in a bitter flavored c.o.c.ktail of emotions that appeared when they laid their eyes on the solitary beasts that began looking at the distance. Their bodies weren''t in the same places, but their gazes were all locked in the same direction, looking at the blue sky of the blue energy, in the north outside of the city they had invaded.

    At some point, one the beast couldn''t contain a roar that seemed to have come straight from its guts- slowly making its down up in the body of the towering monster- before releasing it to blue heaven that had trapped them here.

    Without any leader, or clear direction, those intelligent beasts found themselves lacking any order, and as they had also been separated, they could only look at the distance north of New Casablanca. They were hoping to once again meet their kins, that stood in the other side of the barrier.

    After the first roar, they began making their way to the extremities of the blue shell. Slowly, but steadily, due to their large bodies, they made their way through the large silvery streets of the main district, and soon regrouped to the place where the entire wall had been broken down into small pieces by Thol''Yr.

    Outside of the transparent blue shell, the beasts could only gaze at the creatures in the distance with mixed expressions on their grotesque giant faces.

    Time passed quietly, as a deafening roar that seemed to have come out of a titanic throat entered the ears of the beasts standing in the desolate street that faced the energy bubble shell.

    A few seconds passed, and a drastic change began appearing in the silent beasts. Their humongous bodies began shaking, and their furred skin spiked as they physically could be seen that they were facing some external pressure. A low growl appeared in their lungs, slowly made its way toward their throat as they replicate the titanic roar they had heard.

    They could sense that something had begun happening in their bodies, and with the clear mentality they had, and without the influence of being part of the sensation. The rebellious intent that embodied their bodies made them resent the beasts standing behind the other side of the energy shield.

    Then, one the beasts standing in the streets of New Casablanca suddenly attacked a nearby monstrosity that had been dumbly looking through the energy shield. And in the same way, one could take his anger on a sandbag. The towering creature washed its fang deep in the throat of the creature that had been standing still.

    One swift attack that went straight for the kill as the towering beast began gorging itself on the feast that appeared in front of it.

    It didn''t take long for two reactions to happen, with one that reproduced the same action, and others that intruded themselves near the fleshly carcass as they began also eating to their fill.

    "They are killing each other!?"

    "Hell!? What is going on with them?"

    Several thoughts flashed- in mere split seconds- in the clear minds of the individual that were monitoring the bestial monsters that were still inside of the main district¡ªtheir facial expressions, changing from one to another as they felt that the situation was too surreal.

    The beasts they were trying to kill for hours were now taking their own life with ease. Their guts screamed as they knew that this shift in their behavior wouldn''t be anything favorable to them. Their mind, logical and Cartesian, were hellbent on saying that the events were good for them.

    Less beast to fight would always be a trade-off that the soldier of the armed forces would accept. Those monstrosities had turned the street of their city into a raging battlefield where they had to implode their MechSuit to win milliseconds. The losses were heavy, and their injured minds were far from having forgotten the events that happened hours before.

    And it was due to those reasons, that despite seeing the fierce towering beasts kill each other, their guts alerted them that nothing would come good of their actions.

    The beasts had been easy prey for the MechSuits on the first day, yet had still quickly turned into something they couldn''t dare to face if they weren''t at least a squad composed of thirty soldiers.

    Their strongest fear hadn''t exactly come from the singular strength of the beasts, but had come from their evolutionary speed.

    "We need to kill them quickly before the group of beasts turned one terrifying creature that we can''t afford to have inside of the energy shield."

    "Can we even damage them in our current state!?", mumbled on the men as he looked at the screens. "But the situation need to be stopped before they turn into an unstoppable force that we won''t have any hope of resisting."

    The brave way couldn''t help but lay their hopes out loud, but was quickly washed out by the- cold-hearted- harsh words seethed in his self-deprecating tone.

    "Fighting them isn''t possible¡­", mumbled one of the higher ups. "We can''t bomb the main district as the authorities haven''t yet abandoned that place."

    "But there is absolutely no way that we will let them pass through this highway without them at least losing a few numbers¡­", mumbled one of them that didn''t seem to have any envy to go back there. He largely preferred the last backup plan they had prepared, and that would be the explosion of every single factory nearby.

    The explosion that would arise from it would transform the surroundings of the slum into a hellish area that couldn''t be crossed for days, or even weeks, due to the intensive radiation.

    The self-destructive attack could, in fact, be interpreted as the city''s last attempt at taking down the blood mawed beasts army.

    "Calm down Gentlemen. Do remember that our lives are assets we cannot simply throw away. Our last orders where to rejoin the authorities that went to the slums."

    "Our next directive are to do that¡­"

    "But¡­", mumbled one of the experimented men that knew that they had to at least try.

    "No but!", exclaimed the man loudly, his eyes turned cold as his countenance changed. One only needed one look to know that he wasn''t part of a military background but had nonetheless been part of the armed forces-of course- as a higher up. "The order! Nothing more, nothing less."

 Chapter 297 - Reversal. Life or Death Part Three

    "Our civilians were saved, and we don''t want to lose any more lives."

    Hearing the order through their communications system, a few heads dropped low, as a few hearts- on the contrary- couldn''t help but rejoice as they had no plan on gambling their lives again on a suicidal mission.

    Their depressed minds could only see the result of that mission with a few scratches on the though skin of the beasts, and- obviously- that result would on come with the total extermination of any squad that would dare to approach them.

    Their maddened state had transformed the already dangerous beasts into something that no soldiers from the armed force wanted to approach. And as seconds passed, and the creatures inside of their city continued gorging on the flesh of their allies, they could only see with a heavy heart that threatened to fail that the creatures were becoming stronger.

    In the first minute of the strange mutiny that had taken hold of them, their number was halved, and the beasts that were standing inside of their city could be counted on the fingers of one hand.

    Their shapes turned grotesque, as the blood essence in the flesh of the humongous carcasses flowed in the tunnel sized veins of the one that survived. Bubbles appeared on their furred skin, as it suddenly turned elastic under the sudden expansion of their bodies.

    The change happened in the span of a few minutes, and by the time the beasts resumed their fights, their figures could already topple the height of the middle-sized building of their city.

    The horrifying image appeared on the screen of the armed forces that were making their way to the Core. The decision to follow the directive from the authorities of the city seemed to have firmly taken hold in their hearts, as even the few brave ones that had dared to propose the mission thanked their superior for having saved the lives they were going to throw away.

    The hearts of the higher-ups of the armed forces hung on their throat as no word left their throat. They could only silently gazed at the towering beasts with apparent fears in their eyes.

    "How are we going to take care of them?". Mumbled on the men, unaware that his voice spread loud through the communication devices that linked the numerous squads together.

    "This is no longer something we can take down on our owns¡­"

    "Our weapon isn''t even effective on their titanium layered bodies¡­"

    "I even doubt our weapons could damage their internal organs, even less than though and coarse skin¡­"

    Each one of them threw his reasons, but the major consensus between the soldiers was that MechSuits and New Casablanca''s weapon could no longer deal with any damage to the creatures. Sending their troupes would only result in the total and utter decimation of their soldiers.

    "Too many lives had been lost today¡­", spoke a middle aged man that was monitoring their discussion. "Do not despair¡­ Fear is a natural sense. Listen to it as, without it, you might not have survived today''s events."

    "The war isn''t lost, Brothers!", his voice turned coarse as his speech contained thoughts coming straight out of his heavy hearts. "We must believe in our future. Our city is old, and even if we have to crawl on the dirt, we will survive this calamity!"

    The soldier''s expressions varied as they heard the voice of the direct superior of the armed forces. His speech, nonetheless, still managed to awaken some spirit in a few soldiers, that would use it later in their journey to survive through many other hurdles.

    "Hope my ass¡­", thought one of the soldiers with a grim expression. His mind, corroded by his fatigue, could only curse as he didn''t manage to sleep due to the constant talk in his communication device.

    The man''s scarred hand slapped the metallic square-shaped box attached to his right biceps, turning it off as he ignored the discussion in the vehicle where he was traveling. He closed his eyes to try and find seconds of peace for his brain, but the sounds were coming from the holographic screen, and the intense gasp of his college once again made it impossible for him to keep his eyes close.

    Sadly, he couldn''t afford to walk to the Core, and had to support those conditions through the entire travel through the highway. Every dozens of seconds, his shut down eyes opened up slightly, turning into thin slits that would sharply glance at the transformed creatures.

    "F.u.c.k¡­", he mumbled under his breath in an inaudible voice as his sight focused on one of the floating blue colored screens in the vehicle. "Thanks god they are killing themselves, that''ll made less work for us.", he though before once again falling in deep silence as he ignored his surroundings.

    The soldiers'' minds were filled with morbid curiosity toward the beasts that were killing each other in their cities. Obviously, a few soldiers were too tired to give any thought about the monsters, as they had been craving for the whole day a few minutes of rest. Sadly, they couldn''t even come to enjoy those seconds of beasts as the figure of the beasts never left their sight due to the holographic monitors.

    Time passed quietly, as changes were ongoing on the outside of the energy shields, but the attention span of the armed forces were too focused on the inside of their city to notice the rapid and rabid change happening outside of New Casablanca.

    No one knew what would be their reactions, if they saw the hundreds of beasts- far bigger than the towering beasts in the main district- fighting next door outside of their city, only separated by a thin transparent shield that spotted anyone from entering or leaving the city.

    "The beasts in the main district have fallen to two. Looks like their battle royal is soon coming to an end.", exclaimed one of the soldiers that couldn''t afford to take an eye away from the monitors.

    His eyes, gorged with numerous small veins, had since long turned red, and added with that the large bag under his eyes gave him an unsightly pale figure that wasn''t anything that could be seen as healthy.

    "The final showdown¡­", sarcastically mumbled one of the soldiers that similarly couldn''t take his eyes away from the glistening transparent holographic screen.

    "Who do you think will win?", asked one of the soldiers to the man next to him. As though he was actually standing in a bar, and not inside of an armed cortege of the city''s armed forces. The eyes of the man next who received the question opened slightly, turning into musky slits that soon glowed softly due to the reflection of the holographic sign, his eyes stared at the two creatures in the screens for a long period of time, as though he was weighting the two creatures'' strength in his heart.

    "I''d say the one standing next to the building that host a caf¨¦ in the first floor.", he briskly answered. His eyes didn''t leave the towering figure of the scaled creature he had announced as the winner. "I dunno, I feel It is quite threatening compared to the other. Plus that one only survived because it avoided fighting the creatures, only focusing on stealing parts of the carcass."

    "I honestly can''t see a beast that weak as a winner.", he responded frankly without leaving any doubt in his heart. The man that asked him the question hadn''t expected a detailed answer, as he had only asked the question to strike some conversation with the man.

    Nonetheless, he nodded silently because he similarly couldn''t help but agree with the logical answer he received from the half sleeping soldier next to him. He continued looking at the two towering creatures'' fight through the colorful monitor that filled every single vehicle of the cortege, with the only few persons that didn''t pay attention to it were those currently focused on opening the half-dead bodies they had gathered from the battlefield.

    The medical corps wasn''t the kind to care about the beasts, and were fully focused on the monstrosities laying in front of them.

    "Shock!?", lightning left a metallic object that was clenched by the hand of a thirty years old man. He waited patiently for the answer to his question before crouching down slightly, and applied the metallic object he grasped in his hands on a half burned carcass of an Earthling.

    "Go!", he didn''t wait for the correct tempo. But the corpse nonetheless convulsed, and the next moment, a small pulse could be sensed in his torso. The electronic equipment next to them confirmed the sensation that traversed his hand. "We have made him come back!"

    "Those resources are godly!", exclaimed one of the assistants as he couldn''t help but trust his eyes.

    "This isn''t the end, every inch of his skin is badly damaged, and his muscles are cooked to the point where his muscular fiber had turned into charcoal.", he exclaimed loudly before continuing. "Starting now, things will quite spicy¡­", he mumbled as he took out a metallic mallet from under the seat used as a table for the operation.

    "With those beauties, it wouldn''t be impossible to revive death itself!", he exclaimed in a maddened sense as his hand began applying some gel on the burned patches of skin.

 Chapter 298 - Reversal. Life Or Death Part Four

    The third day of the attack on New Casablanca advanced with the crossing of the highway that led to the slums.

    The state of the armed forces was devastated due to the horrendous fights in the prior hours. Rare were those that weren''t physically scarred after those long, stressful hours of constant combat against the beasts, and even them weren''t void of injury as the event would stay lodge in their hearts as though a deep knife had been left there.

    Yet those soldiers were forced to accept that reality, and forced to continue advancing forward, despite the low hopes they held for their near future, one where they sadly didn''t see themselves as the controlling force. But one where they felt as though they had been thrown in the middle of the sea with a tempest closing on on every side¡ªforced to flee to survive a few more hours, or at best mere days.

    The bitter aftertaste of the emotional rollercoaster that this war had been for their mind, with especially with today''s retreat, had left the morale of the soldiers shallow and depressed.

    The exception only laid in those that had seen worse, or had survived through situation akin to those. The Golden family''s Old Soldier had been part of the fight that was held in the south wall, he had been one of the first that arrived in the north district, and had seen the horrendous scene.

    His eyes were calmly watching the numerous holographic screen available inside of every vehicle of the cortege. The screen he was looking at showed a right angle of the two beasts standing- side by side- and attempting to take the other''s life at any moment notice. Several other soldiers were looking at that specific screen, but contrary to the others, the Old Soldier''s eyes weren''t marked on the two beasts, but even further rooted in the vibrant canvas.

    His glance moved past the energy shield, as though his senses had picked that something was happening there. An ominous and dangerous vibe was caught by his spirit, coming straight up from the north. At the same time, thoughts about a black haired swordsman couldn''t help but pass through his mind.

    "Did he grow enough to be able to stop this whole calamity?", he thought as he knew that he felt the subtle gut feeling that traversed his mind. One where Fell would be inexplicably linked with the ominous aura he was feeling in the north.

    "This is going to be dangerous¡­", he thought as a tiny sigh-like exhale escaped from his nostrils.

    Thankfully, he could only vaguely sense a feeling of the blood formation that the beasts had instinctively set up. He didn''t know the actual danger held in it, and only two individuals were aware of it, as they currently stood in the center of that Formation.

    Akainmhar and Fell''s figure could be seen standing on the same towering creatures. Only their surroundings had drastically changed due to the fact that the towering animal had to flee from the ravenous beasts that had cut contact with the Formation; And only stopped when it hid itself in a densely populated part of the sea of creatures, one where the strong towering creatures were still linked in the ominous Formation.

    The red haired man didn''t know if the beasts had chosen this place in particular, but he could sense that the influx of slaughter aura received by Fell had been smoothened. Strangely, the fact that Fell was standing closer to a significant circuit of the Formation, made it that the influx of slaughter aura running along the beasts would be transferred to him in a steadier fashion.

    "Looks like this creature is quite intelligent¡­", he mumbled as he could sense the gigantic orbits dart left and right. As though it was hoping that it''s hiding stop was efficient enough. "It even cut its senses from the rest¡­", he mumbled as he looks around him.

    His nostrils twitched as his otherworldly physique had upgraded the pure senses of smell, touch, vision, taste, and vision to an inhuman level, and added his blood essence treasure. The fine line linking every beast quickly entered his eyes, as a gigantic mental map of the sea of creature appeared in his mind.

    "His roar did damage the Formation, but it only caused a change in the layout of the Formation¡­ It still exists, and I can''t even say that any damage had been dealt to its vital parts¡­".

    His face turned into a dark color as a grim expression flashed on his face, as he could sense that the situation was even trickier than he had thought. "Even if this Formation ceases¡­ As long as the blood essence in those beasts exists, then there would always be a Formation that would naturally form."

    His mind worked in a lightning fast manner, and time ticked quietly as he began forming many potential leads that might be able to stop the sea of creatures. Since the very first moment he had plunged inside of the army of creatures, his mind was continually picking mental note on its internal structure, on the common characteristic in the beasts blood essence that existed between them.

    Due to those valuable pieces of information, the experienced Akainmhar had picked continuously up. He came with different solutions.

    Sadly, those solutions were mostly hypothetic ones where he either lacked one final component of the puzzle or needed an overpowering strength that could end everything in one finger clap.

    "The easiest solution¡­ Is to simply kill every single one of those creatures, at the same exact moment, leaving the Formation no opportunity to focus the blood essence of the dead creatures to any living one.", thought Akainmhar fully aware that he couldn''t execute this action.

    Even Thol''Yr wouldn''t be capable of taking down every single creature of the army of beast in one attack. The Formation had evolved to the point where the weakest creature, alone, could be seen as an immortal monster if thrown inside the city. MechSuit and First Realm cultivators were far from being capable of facing them, even in groups, and could only rely on long-distance attacks to chip slowly at life from a safe place.

    "The second option would be to¡­ filter the blood essence of every single creature¡­ But even that isn''t possible, the creatures birthed from the Formation are far too numerous, and a second realm cultivator is far from being capable of such feats¡­", he mumbled as his eyes glinted lightly.

    Not even he knew if he could be able to attain such feats if he broke through the third realm of cultivation. Once again, strength was all that matter as the two options he could think of were exploits he wasn''t capable of accomplishing.

    "The third solution lie inside of this youth¡­ His soul is tainted by this Formation, and he had already managed to manifest an intent that nearly broke the order of the Formation.", his eyes glinted sharply as Fell''s figure was reflected on his red- flamboyant- iris.

    "I can sense that the intent of his roar is only awakening, something bigger is coming soon¡­", he could gaze at the red haired Fell. Unable to approach him, due to the fact that a delicate yet firm membrane of soul power had sheltered his body in a cocoon, blocking any sense that tried peering inside of his body, or inside of his Soul Palace.

    "That roar wasn''t an end¡­", his eyes glowed as he could sense that something inside of that body was leaving its cocoon.

    Fell eyes had blanked the moment he had unleashed that roar, his senses had been shut down, and he had no idea of what was going on around him.

    From an outside perspective, he was still standing still, surrounded by an ungodly amount of slaughter aura- coming from the sea of beasts- lingering around him. But from his senses, he had been locked inside of his Soul Palace, where everything had been shambled by the roar.

    A dark crimson colored veil seemed to have been placed in front of his eyes, putting a strange hue to his vision as he gazed at his Soul Palace.

    High in the ceiling of his Soul Palace, a raging sky stormed in the form of a sea of slaughter, and a thick somber pillar had emerged from the sea, linking it with the earthly purple expanse.

    Fell''s ego body slowly hovered toward the middle of his Soul Palace, right where the thick pillar of slaughter aura had mixed with the glinting purple energy from the earthly expanse of his Soul Palace. His figure crossed the distance in an instant, as he appeared beside the thick pillar that linked the Heaven And Earth of his soul palace.

    "This¡­", he mumbled as he couldn''t understand how the two energy had come to an absolute equilibrium, despite the fact that the slaughter aura in his Soul Palace should have been the dominant force.

    He raised his eyes upward, and sensed that the small isle in the sea of slaughter was the point of contact of the pillar of energy.

 Chapter 299 - Reversal. Life Or Death Part Five

    His eyes didn''t quit the small isle that hung in the middle of his sea of slaughter, and through his Ego Body, he sensed the changes ongoing in his Soul Palace.

    "Perfect balance¡­", he thought as he began hovering toward the middle of the thick somber pillar that linked the Heaven and Earth of his Soul Palace.

    With each second passing, he could feel the strengthening of the sea of slaughter and glistening purple expanse. As though an ecosystem had been born in his soul, one where the basis of that equilibrium could be traced back to the small isle.

    His memory delved on the past, as he reminisced about the Formation of that isle, one that happened at the same moment his ego body had fused back with his body.

    From the abnormal intrinsic slaughter aura that had fused with his soul, arose a ravenous sea of slaughter, one strong to the point where the rest of his energy had to assemble together into a vast glistening purple expanse. In the middle of that sea of slaughter, had rose a small isle, one where the seed of strength he had acquired from the Gigantic Tree, the same one that had saved his soul from completely disappearing in the void.

    In his mind, those events were the first specks of memory he had the privilege to remember, as everything prior to that had been wiped clean by the calamity that had taken hold of his soul, one he couldn''t even remember the origin of.

    "The seed has grown into a tiny plant¡­", he exclaimed softly as his senses zoomed on the small isle. His sight broke the realm of logic- as his ego body was the equivalent of a god inside of his Soul Palace- and the small patch of brown soil that had formed into an isle clearly appeared in his sight.

    Each grain of soil could be singularly identified in his sight, and a tiny plant could be seen growing in the middle of the small patch of dirt. The tiny plant could be seen pulsating- absorbing streams upon streams of the ambient slaughter aura that wasn''t part of his sea of slaughter.

    Although the plant resulting from the Seed of Strength seem small in contrast to the other entities of his Soul Palace, it was, in fact, an exceedingly strong pile of energy that had been compressed inside of that seed. It didn''t immediately make Fell a hegemonic figure, but was nonetheless, a powerful tool with incalculable potential.

    Even at this stage of its growth, Fell could already notice the vibrant life force escaping from each grain of soil in the small isle. And one only needed a glance on the tiny leaves of the plant, overflowing with a vivid and vibrant vitality.

    "This unknown plant is refining the slaughter aura of the Formation into clean energy that can help my purple expanse grow¡­", his surprise was reflected in his eyes. As it completely changed his situation in the Bestial Formation, not only wouldn''t the aura get out of his realm of control, he would also receive a boost in his cultivation as his purple expanse would fully catch up to the strength of his sea of slaughter.

    His eyes moved everywhere, as the divine sense he held inside of his Soul Palace spread everywhere around him. The facial expression of his Ego Body softened sightly as his consciousness spread everywhere in the vast space surrounding him.

    Time seemed to accelerate in his senses as he fell in a cultivation state inside of his Soul Palace. Prior to that, he had tried taking control of his physical body, but hadn''t managed to do that, as there seemed to be a hindrance blocking him from doing that. But the strange thing was that the hindrance in question, was in no way coming from the beasts, but was, in fact, coming from his own body.

    As though, it was telling the young cultivator that it was time for his soul cultivation to take the final step that would lead him to become a fully fledge second realm cultivator. The breakthrough process- that had begun happening a few days prior to that- had progressed to the point where it could be considered in its very last step.

    In some sense, the rebirth of his Ego body had been a major change enough to push him to the Second Realm of Soul Cultivation, but the different energy that had mixed with his soul during the process had made him unbalanced. Thankfully, due to the beasts army''s activity and the deployment of the Formation of blood essence and slaughter aura, the seed of power had sprouted and began repairing the flaws of his Soul Palace.

    Under his Divine Sense, he felt the progress of his Soul Palace and Ego Body advance at a fast rate. His translucent soul slowly shifted into a material state due to the pure crystalline energy refined by the Seed of Strength, and his Soul Palace began expanding in the void, growing gradually under the constant absorption of the slaughter aura shared by the Bestial Formation.

    At that point, Fell''s mind fell in a strange abyssal cloud- an abyss where he could feel the constant change happening to him and around him- but nonetheless made him absent minded.

    Strange depersonalization symptoms took hold of his psyche, and before long, even his thinking slowed to a crawling pace before coming to a stop.

    His Ego Body continued molding into a matter nearly physical, one only needed one look at it to understand that that translucent body was the crystallization of his will. His entire Soul Cultivation Path was developing at a fast rate, as the cultivator''s mind in question felt as though he had fallen in an abyss.

    Outside of his body, the red haired Akainmhar continued gazing at the man''s figure in front of him. His instinct told him that something was in the midst of being born, and that it wouldn''t long to reveal itself to the rest of the world. A brewing storm sheltered inside of a water drop that would before long explode, and released a refined tempest.

    "The influx of Slaughter Aura is increasing!", he mumbled as he felt the prickling sensation- akin to thousands of sharp legged ant running on the surface of his skin- accelerate. Steadily augmenting as it the transfer of aura intensified after a few seconds.

    The phenomenon had grown to the point where even the atmosphere began screeching and screaming due to the piling ominous aura that was amassed there. And that still happened even with Fell acting as a magnet to that type of aura.

    One could only imagine what would happen if every speck of slaughter aura gathered by the Formation was released in one singular point. An abyssal horror that no mortal would wish to meet might creep out of that Slaughter Aura singularity, and thankfully, that situation wasn''t vowed to happen there as the Seed of Strength wouldn''t leave that aura alone.

    "Who the hell is this kid?", he exclaimed loudly as he couldn''t help but swear from the scene unfolding in front of his wide eyes. He would never have thought that the intent he had sent in the man''s Soul Palace would provoke such a situation, one where even he wasn''t sure what would unfold.

    "Can he control everything?", Akainmhar asked himself quietly as even he couldn''t stay unfazed by the torrent of slaughter aura streaming inside of the cultivator.

    Seconds passed as billowing dark clouds appeared over the heads of the two cultivators, and quickly grew to the point where it encompassed the group of towering creatures that were still part of the Bestial Formation. Red sparkling bolt of lightning didn''t take long to appear under the influence of the slaughter aura.

    "A breakthrough to the Second Realm!", Akainmhar''s nose twitched as he sensed the sudden change in atmosphere. He approached the youth with two speedy steps, and approached his hand toward Fell''s body before coming to a stop a few inches before touching his skin.

    "Burning hot¡­", he mumbled as his eyes opened widely. "His Three Paths are breaking through!", he thought as he began slowly distancing himself from the youth. "Is he confident? Or cornered?", he thought in his mind as he hadn''t excepted the chain of events at all.

    After the billowing somber clouds filled with red lightning bolt hid the canvas called the sky, a few seconds didn''t even pass, that other phenomenon began manifesting in the atmosphere surrounding Fell. Only he could have recognized that phenomenon as physical materializations of his cultivation bases, but his mind had turned into a Divine Sense that had completely fused with his Soul Palace.

    And as the atmosphere was filled with shocking manifestation, the influx of Slaughter Aura sent to Fell continued rising, and before long hit a ceiling, as a literal beam of Slaughter Aura had surrounded his figure. At that point, Akainmhar was forced to back away, standing ten meters away from the thick pillar of Slaughter Aura.

 Chapter 300 - Blooming Sapling Part One

    Akainmhar''s eyes turned into small slits under the constraint of the light released by the pillar of slaughter aura. His figure stepped back as he felt a powerful pressure force him to back away in front of the numerous energy with a different source.

    Soon he found himself obliged to stand on the other side of the towering creature''s back, but his sight was nonetheless, fixated on Fell''s figure inside of the pillar of slaughter aura.

    "To what extend would his strength grow?", he mumbled quietly as he felt a chill run down his skin. His spine straightened as his balance shifted slightly, his body had instinctively entered into battle mode, as the numerous source of energy brewing in front of him caused him to feel pressured.

    "Can I break through my limits... If I fight him?", he thought in the middle of the wrecked atmosphere surrounding the beast they stood on. Akainmhar''s blood accelerated through his veins, galloping with the might of hundreds of horses as the red haired man''s tremendous physical strength spilled out of his pores.

    "What am I thinking¡­", he mumbled as he could feel his body instinctively take the figure in the distance as an opponent. "This is neither the time nor the place to fight him¡­ He still has room for growth in the near future.", he calmed his tingling senses as he reminded himself that it would be the best course of action to execute.

    Akainmhar''s mind was hell-bent on battling Fell, as he felt that the young cultivator might take out cards that could force him to surpass his limits.

    A red lightning bolt clapped over his head, reverberating from the thick somber clouds in an echo that shook Akainmhar''s out of his thought. His head tilted upward as his vision faced the sky, and his eyes focused on the canvas painted with the phenomenon caused by Fell.

    Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!

    The shockwaves produced by the lightning bolt pierced through the air, turning into an echo as the destructive mass of energy moved through the air at a fast pace. An echo that clearly showed Akainmhar that the destructive force of nature was making its way toward his position.

    Akainmhar''s eyes turned into small slits- intercepting the trajectory of the lightning bolt in his mind in a split second- and his eyes darted toward the figure standing in the pillar of red light. The next moment his vision faced the sky, the lightning bolt was already standing above the beast in a manner akin to a sword of Damocles.

    They were threatening to fall brutally on the body of the towering creature at any moment notice. Sparks of small electrical shaped snakes ran through the air, filling the surroundings of the titanic lightning bolt that was rushing through the air, nearly bending the fabric of space.

    At the last moment- just before the lightning bolt connected with the towering creature''s skin- Akainmhar''s eyes caught the red lightning bolt veer from its trajectory and darted toward the thick pillar of red light. All of that happened in a split second, from the moment he heard the raging thunder over his head, to the moment he saw the destructive force of nature disappear quietly inside of Fell''s body, less than a single second had flowed.

    Akainmhar''s eyes gazed speechlessly at the ongoing events, he didn''t even have the time to swallow the information his eyes had caught that his ears heard the same sound. Only this time, he was sure that the repetition weren''t coming from the booming shock wave echoing through the wind, but was due to the multiple numbers of lightning bolt.

    "Nine Bolt!", he muttered as his eyes glinted brightly under the red sparkling force of nature.

    The same scene reproduced in front of his eyes, as not one one, but eight lightning bolt fell one after another straight toward the pillar of slaughter aura that finally showed a reaction in front of the strong destructive force. Small waves appeared in its surface, the same waves that would appear when one throws small pebbles at the surface of a pond.

    They fluctuated for a few shorts seconds that lasted to the final moment when he absorbed the final bolt of lightning.

    "His energy path¡­", mumbled the red haired Akainmhar quietly. His experienced senses caught the dense Heaven and Earth energy filling the lightning bolt, an energy that could only be affiliated with the Energy Refining Path.

    His hair danced with the wind, turning small silky fiery thread that spun slowly in a vortex. His nose twitched as he picked up a faint smell in the wind, one that Akainmhar immediately recognized as Blood Essence. A pure and strong Blood Essence that pulsed with a vivid vitality.

    "His body cultivation¡­", he mumbled as he could sense that physical phenomenon was appearing one after another in the pack of creatures.

    Even with the torrent of energy appearing in around an essential part of the Formation, no change seem to happen to the Bestial Formation as the flow of Slaughter Aura steadily continued flowing toward Fell''s Soul Palace.

    This time, it wasn''t just one materialization that appeared, but two powerful Blood Essence signal that began gathering around Fell''s surrounding. One came straight from the red colored soil under the army of creatures, while the other came the beasts themselves.

    "Yin and Yang¡­", Akainmhar''s watchful senses didn''t miss any characteristic in two Blood Essence that had appeared. The fact that he was a cultivator that specialized in body cultivator, and especially as the current owner of a mysterious blood essence treasure, Akainmhar was more than knowledgeable to analyze the two nearby signals.

    The Yin Blood Essence came straight out of the soil that had been washed red by the three days of constant battling. That blood essence not only contained elements from the beasts, but also from the brave heroes- of New Casablanca- the same one that had died and shed their fleshly body as they moved on to the afterlife.

    The red haired man''s eyes opened once again widely as he felt heard five loud bang around him. He didn''t even have the time to turn around than another five explosions arose from his surroundings.

    The Yang Blood Essence''s source was straight out of the beasts, but to Akainmhar''s surprise, he couldn''t sense any of that ominous and virulent aura that was distinctive to the creatures of the Bestial Formation. In the contrary, what entered his nose was a spicy smell that brimmed with potent strength.

    If the Yin Blood Essence''s characteristic came with softness, coldness, and a painless, soothing feeling that came with death, then the Yang Blood Essence could only be assimilated to a fiery volcano.

    In fact, the blood essence running inside of his own vein was far too similar to the one coursing toward Fell.

    Only he knew that his blood essence''s purity only came due to the purification of his treasure, on his own, he would have never attained that level of crystalline purity at the Second Realm.

    Right after his senses picked up the phenomenon of his body cultivation base breaking through, his vision flashed and turned red as another layer of crimson appeared in front of him.

    Small dots filled the sky, as the Yin Blood Essence and Yang Blood Essence turned into a streaming rain that gathered toward Fell''s figure inside of the red pillar of aura.

    "What should come next¡­", he mumbled as his eyes glowed brightly. Even his own breathing came to a stop as Akainmhar knew that he couldn''t miss the final part of the cultivation breakthrough. "Is the path of his Soul!", he mumbled as he felt that it was the young cultivator''s most mysterious asset.

    Fell''s memory loss was related to his soul, and Akainmhar had always felt that the specific event of his memory had been too strange. His soul was undamaged, but he could sense in the man''s gaze the same type of look one would get from a stranger.

    The final phenomenon that appeared was one that surprised the red haired man. The light coming from the sun shunned away, as a massive shadow appeared in the middle of the sky over their head. With the appearance of that shadowy figure among the clouds, silence spreads around Fell as the small sparks of lingering lightning were the only source of noise.

    Even the deafening sounds coming from the army of beasts seemed to have been canceled by a mystical force field. And the next moment, Akainmhar''s eardrum rang as an overpowering roar made every other sound come to a stop.

    A powerful Sense spread away with the deafening roar. The strength of that Sense was such that the space it traversed was left visibly vibrating and shacking.

    As though what had passed through that place wasn''t a sound, but a pure mass of Soul Energy that held rule over its surroundings.

    Then after the roar, the shadow in the sky grew in height, giving the impression that a titanic humanoid entity was making its way down to their mortal realm.

 Chapter 301 - Blooming Sapling Part Two

    The moment he heard the roar, Akainmhar''s ears and mind found it remarkably similar to the first roar that freed the beasts from the Bestial Formation. Only this time, the booming sound had a completely different intent hanging on it.

    If the first one had been all about defiance, and relentless pursuit of a better path, then, this titanic howl the shadowy figure in the sky had released was nothing more than a revelation of its existence.

    Every creature and life form that caught the deafening roar in their senses stopped their movements. Even the ravenous beasts that were too occupied at emptying the inside of their peers; had taken out their bloodied maw from the opened up belly of a living carcass and gazed at the sky.

    The intelligent yet maddened creatures seemed to have fully understood that second roar. Or to be more exact had comprehended the intent behind that roar.

    Thus, the moment that followed that mighty roar that had shaken the heaven, silence had fallen entirely upon the army of beasts.

    Even their exceedingly strong breathe stopped, as every creature hid its respiration, turning the powerful nasal pumps into shallow pipes that only inhaled small wisp of air.

    It was as though every single creature on the battlefield had made its self smaller under the appearance of the shadowy giant in the sky.

    Akainmhar''s eyes gazed at the giant in the clouds, and notice two glints in the place where the eyes should have been.

    "How much did this youth acc.u.mulate before breaking through!", he exclaimed softly as he couldn''t understand how a breakthrough to the Second Realm could cause this much phenomenon.

    He was aware that the youth practiced three cultivation path at the same time, thus making him the owner of three cultivation bases.

    Compared to him, the phenomenon caused by Akainmhar''s third breakthrough had been far less imposing and had even left him asking himself If he was also special, to begin with.

    "Well¡­ I guess the Bestial Formation must have played an important role in this process.", he added softly under his breath.

    His eyes moved from the giant in the sky to a figure standing across the towering beast he held on, and noticed that the influx of Slaughter Aura was reducing. Or to be more exact, the absorption coming from Fell''s body had risen to a whole other level.

    Each second that passed made the pillar of red aura thin and turn even more transparent.

    Ten seconds after the deafening giant''s roar, Fell''s absorption made the pillar of slaughter aura ridiculous to the point where it couldn''t even be described as a pillar.

    Fell''s figure appeared in bright daylight, the red color in his hair had receded to the point where only a few strands of hair had stayed a crimson color.

    The rest of his hair had regained their original black color, as the influence of the sea of slaughter in his body receded in front of the balance that had formed in his Soul Palace. His eyelid trembled, and the next moment, a pair of crystalline flashed in the void.

    One pupil was red, while the other was purple. And the moment they were opened, Akainmhar felt a chill run down the surface of his skin as a similar pair of eyes appeared in his mind, as though they had peered through his secret.

    "How?!", he asked himself while raising his defense. Both of them now stood on the Second Realm of cultivation, and none of them should have been able to pry open the other''s secrets.

    Fell recognized the man standing in the distance, his eyes calmly moved toward his surroundings, and the first thing he noticed in the army of creatures around him was that there were standing completely still. Silence had embedded itself in the atmosphere, and even the soft wind around them could be clearly heard.

    He drew his senses inside of his body, as he began noticing the drastic changes that had begun to his cultivation bases.

    "I can sense that all three of my cultivation bases have broken thro-", he exclaimed before coming to a stop when he noticed his Soul Palace.

    He opened his eyes and tilted his head upward, his pupil turned into slits the moment he saw the shadowy giant hidden behind the clouds. "My ego body¡­", he mumbled softly as he continued moving through the changes that happened to him.

    The blood coursing through his vein was nothing compared to before, and the strength of his blood essence made him even doubt if he could be fatally injured.

    The lightning-based energy that coursed through his meridians had completely turned into a liquid, and that process had even extended to the Heaven and Earth Energy held inside of his Dantian.

    Every change that had happened to his cultivation bases entered his mind in a few seconds. Although he wasn''t aware of what every one of them meant, he knew that this rise of strength was more important than every other breakthrough he had in his short life as a cultivator.

    His eyes opened once again, only this time, confidence about his strength, and confidence when it came to facing the Formation he was linked, could be clearly seen in his eyes. A smile slowly itself on his lips, and his figure moved in a single motion.

    He threw his head to the back, his hair danced in the wind as a deafening howl escaped from his throat. The air in front of him shook visibly as his roar turned into a shock wave that spread to the entirety of the army of beasts in an effortless manner.

    That roar was a declaration from Fell, one that caused every single beast in the battlefield to cower in front of his might. Akainmhar saw the scene unravel in front of his eyes, that roar wasn''t aimed at him, but a terrible sensation crawled on his skin as he felt the power hidden inside of that body.

    That roar had escaped from the youth''s throat, and after spreading away for a few seconds, began clearing the dark clouds that were hanging in the air above their head. Wisps of sunlight broke through the veil of darkness that had been set up by the sea of billowing clouds.

    After one ray of light broke through the veil of darkness, it was as though a sporadic infection had been orchestrated, and the clouds in the sky began receding away. And what had been hidden behind those clouds finally entered the sight of every single life form that was standing in the north outside of New Casablanca.

    What first appeared was a pair of eyes- their colors were similar to Fell''s own eyes- except that each eyeball seemed to form a purple-red diagram that continuously circled in a mystical way. Then, with the receding clouds, what appeared next were parts of the giant''s body, slowly unraveling in front of the surprised eyes of the numerous life forms present.

    A golden-colored flash that seemed to have been melted out of a pure crystalline rock, with well defined physical feature that were exactly identical to Fell''s body. Akainmhar''s eyes only needed a single instant to recognize the giant as being a materialization of Fell''s own energy.

    The golden-colored giant had appeared in front of everyone in the north part of New Casablanca. Strength and might was reflected in every inch of his body, and the next moment he mimicked Fell as the illusory giant raised his head toward the sky, blocking him, and defiantly roared towards it.

    The wind accelerated, and space''s solid fabric warped under the deafening sound. The earth under their leg trembled as every creature standing there shivered, as though their realm of existence was too different compared to the illusory giant in the sky.

    Wind clapped, and the next moment, a torrent of lightning materialized around the giant, appearing out of thin air. The sparks of lightning were at first hazardous, running havoc in the sky around the giant, but soon found a medium to their destruction and begun circling the illusory giant.

    Those specks of lightning regrouped around the giant, and formed a circular shape similar to a snake circling around the body of the giant. One only needed a look to notice indents in the circular lightning, although hundreds of glinting scales had formed on its body.

    What followed the formation of the lightning beast was another roar, only this time, the roar didn''t come from the giant, but from the sentient lightning surrounding it. A pure and distinct draconian roar that sent a chill running down the spine of Akainmhar.

    "How much did he acc.u.mulate in those little years of practice!?", he mumbled softly under his breath. His mind reeled and screamed under the reveal of Fell''s strength.

    But that wasn''t the end of his shock, as, after the appearance of the giant, another change took place in the sky. One that made the air screeches and wept, as though a sharp entity was appearing from the void.

 Chapter 302 - Blooming Sapling Part Three

    Akainmhar felt the sharpness punctuating the very fabric of space around the hand of the golden colored giant in the sky. The red haired man only needed to sense it once to be sure that that sword intent was Fell''s own.

    The sharp and deadly sword intent acc.u.mulated little by little in the right hand on the giant. Forming a vast area- in the shape of a longsword- in the empty space, vibrating and shacking as thought hundreds of blades were screaming at the same time.

    Akainmhar felt the sharpness of the invisible sword traverse the air, and hit his face in a stinging flurry of wind. Thunder roared, and the lightning serpent coiled itself around the body in a giant, turning into a strange tattoo that moved carefully on the humongous illusory body.

    For the first time in his life, he felt his intent to fight someone lessen as he saw the acc.u.mulation hidden inside of the youth unfurl one after another. His mind had found a reason- other than the army of beasts- to avoid fighting the young cultivator as he didn''t know if he would actually be pushed through his limits.

    That sharpness in the hand of the giant made him dread any thought of infighting, and his alerted sense clearly transmitted him that one attack would be enough to cut his dense body in half.

    "Sword cultivator have always been a cause of trouble for body cultivators¡­". He sighed softly as he didn''t take his sight out of the illusory golden giant, that didn''t make any move since its appearance. "A sword cultivator who practices three path¡­", he added in horror.

    He could swear that even in the top realm of the universe, such individuals with over-the-top hitting power would have been rare as a phoenix''s feather.

    "Well, What will you do with this much power¡­", he thought as he continued looking at the youth standing across the back of the towering beast Akainmhar stood on.

    And as if Fell had heard the thought of the red haired man, another change once again happened around the illusory giant, as though clearly telling him that it wasn''t over, that he still had something else to unravel. A strange pressure arose from Fell''s body, it traversed the void, and instantly appeared behind the giant in a nearly material form.

    Akainmhar''s eyes swiftly identified the new source of power as being the strongest of them all. As though it merely stood on a higher realm than the other, even saying that it was their own source of stability wouldn''t be wrong.

    That power was the last to manifest, and was also the manifestation that was the least noticeable in the beginning. Behind the Illusory Golden Giant, a small sapling sprouted in the void and appeared out of thin air behind the giant. It first began as a tiny seed, unnoticeable when compared to the size of Illusory Giant. But Akainmhar''s eyes didn''t miss the potent strength hidden in it.

    In a split second, a change happened to the small seed, and it quickly grew in an instant. The inconspicuous seedling snowballed, with small branches forming from the base, and many leaves flourishing on the appearing branches. And as though it sucked on the energy existing in its surroundings, it grew, and grew, until it turned into a magnificent tree that stood behind the Illusory Giant.

    The moment the tree bloomed ultimately, Akainmhar felt that the image in front of him was finally whole, and a sense of balance and completion was exuded by the canvas in the sky.

    "That seed!", Akainmhar''s voice rose but his word didn''t leave his throat as his faced changed in color. The experienced Akainmar didn''t recognize that seed, but through his blood essence treasure, he had managed to sense its power. Even his own treasure could only roughly judge the grade of the seed, and the information that came from the Spirit of his treasure left him shocked.

    The Gigantic Tree had assumed a form similar to the one it had before Fell plucked the source of strength from it. Only his own Gigantic Tree had a clear demarcation in its branches, with three thick main branches that were clearly assimilated to Fell''s tree cultivation bases flourishing more than the other.

    The moment the Gigantic Tree appeared behind the Illusory Golden Giant, a change happened to the Formation they stood inside, as the massive influx of hazardous Blood Essence and Slaughter Aura that ran through the beasts- connected to the Formation- changed their direction and coursed toward the flourishing tree in the sky.

    Fell had been the one that had initiated the act, as he had felt a strange tug coming from the seed inside of his Soul Palace. As though it had explained him that he could use the ambient destructive energy to boost the seed''s growth, and his own growth at the same time.

    A viscous red- bubbling- Blood Essence spiraled in the air, and as the Gigantic Tree as the eye of the steaming red cyclone, a massive Blood Essence cyclone was formed inside of the Formation. A tremendously powerful suction appeared from around the Gigantic Tree, as the golden colored Illusory Giant continued standing still without showing any intention of acting.

    His golden colored body was soon hidden by the torrent of viscous blood essence that streamed around him in the same way the ocean would flow around the surface of the Earth. One only needed one look to feel tiny compared to the massive scale of energy being handled at the moment.

    Not only did the Gigantic Tree had begun a large scale absorption of Blood Essence, it had also begun sucking on the Slaughter Aura that Fell had been managing. And after a few seconds, the entire Formation had been high jacked by the Gigantic Tree.

    Time passed quietly, as the beasts didn''t utter a single growl or hiss during that time. They silently watched as the Illusory Giant cultivated under the flourishing tree. Magnificent light was gathered on the pure crystalline leaves, and with each passing seconds, water drops in the form of pearl were slowly acc.u.mulated on the green leaves.

    Thud! Thud! Thud!

    Each drop that fell gave the impression that it was the lightest matter existing in the universe, but the sound released by the droplet falling on the Illusory Giant caused a tremor in the sky. As though an anvil weighing hundreds of tons was falling on the densest matter of the universe.

    A crystalline, and acute, metallic sound was produced with each falling drops, turning the silent battlefield into a rhythmical providence.

    Akainmhar didn''t trust his eyes, but his senses clearly told him the dramatical change of pressure happening in the air. The disappearance of this much blood essence and slaughter aura couldn''t unnoticed for long, as the red haired man felt that the air around him was being purified.

    Akainmhar''s nose twitched a few times, and he was surprised to find that the pungent odor coming from the blood essence of the army of beasts was being cleansed away by the Gigantic Tree behind the Illusory Giant. One only needed a single look at the north of New Casablanca to notice that the environment was also being changed.

    Even the soil that had been turned red due to the past three days of constant fighting had begun regaining a healthy color, as the Gigantic Tree greedily sucked on the ambient energy without any pause. The scale of action had risen to a tremendous height, as the Gigantic Tree could even be seen from the other side of the energy barrier.

    And what was vowed to happen finally happened, the scale of Fell''s action had been grand to the point where they could no longer go unnoticed from the person that had orchestrated the evil Bestial Formation. A thundering roar clapped in the clouds, and a flash of light beamed from a distance.

    If one had calculated the distance of the flash of light, then he would have come to the conclusion that the source of light had been standing dozens of kilometer afar from the walls of the city. But after the blinding flash of light, a humanoid figure had appeared high in the sky, hovering in the void with red eyes that didn''t leave the Illusory Giant.

    His figure was constantly trembling, and his red eyes pierced through the void as they locked on what was standing behind the Giant. His eyes couldn''t trust the reality happening in front of him, as he couldn''t understand how the Tree had ended up in the hand of his enemies.

    "You took it?!", Thol''Yr spoke between his grounded teeth. He was clenching his jaw to the utmost due to his anger, and one look at him was enough to understand that the ongoing events had caused wrath to appear in the humanoid entity of the Third Realm.

    "That''s it... Good! Good! Good!". His face turned somber with each word that left his lips. By the end of his phrase, the scintillating entity''s face had turned as dark as a fuming black hole.

 Chapter 303 - Blooming Sapling Part Four

    The threatening tone in the voice of the third realm cultivator spread everywhere in the beast army. At first, when Akainmhar heard the question, a pensive and puzzled expression flashed on his face of a second.

    His eyes turned toward the humongous tree standing behind the gigantic Fell standing in the sky. Then, it all clicked in the mind of the red haired man. He could now understand Thol''Yr''s words, and more importantly, understand what has caused the drastic change that happened to Fell.

    "He stole it¡­", Akainmhar mumbled softly before being interrupted by a booming intent that clapped through the air.

    A change happened to the Bestial Formation, as Thol''Yr sent his powerful- all-encompassing- intent unfurling in a web shaped pattern that encapsulated the entire army of beasts.

    Fell opened his eyes, and glanced coldly at the scintillating figure in the distance. The golden giant in the sky began moving, and reproduced his movement as two gigantic flashlights glinted in the air. His senses locked themselves on the powerful signal released by Thol''Yr, and his soul caught on the changes happening to the Formation.

    "Puny cultivator of the second realm. I will show you the distance separating our capacities.", the blinding Thol''Yr roared in another language that entered Fell''s ears. Even if the language wasn''t one known by Fell, he could still more or less understand the meaning of his words.

    The massive flux of blood essence and slaughter aura send to him every second was reduced drastically, as Thol''Yr tried shutting down the free, and large, source of power he was using. But Fell wasn''t the type to abandon control on something he had gained, the Gigantic Tree standing behind glinted as a strong absorption appeared from within it.

    "Filthy punk! I will retrieve that Seed from you corpse!?". Thol''Yr howled in a threatening manner, trying to take some advance on the youth psychologically, but the only answer he received was a cold snort that made him ground his teeth even more.

    The two cultivators bested each other for the control of the massive energy traveling through the Bestial Formation. Thol''Yr''s face was beyond dark, as his fuming mind caused his face to turn into a devilish shape.

    The more Fell gazed at Thol''Yr''s facial feature, the more he found the entity annoying. And before long, without even the influence of Fell''s past relentless intent, the scintillating individual turned into something that needed to be killed.

    The reason was no longer related to the protection of the city, and was even less related to the past karma''s Fell had threaded before the reconstruction of his soul. But something that his own being judged as a necessity.

    The Gigantic Tree had now turned into the balance of every type of energy he cultivator. Not only did the Seed helped him balance his Soul Palace, but was now also turning his three cultivation path into a state of pure equilibrium. Even going as far as to break through to the second realm of cultivation- at the same time- for every path he trod.

    Thol''Yr felt the powerful resistance coming from the Illusory Tree behind Fell, and his anger spiked even more as he felt himself go even with someone that stood a whole realm lower than him.

    He had a feeling that the Seed could no longer be taken out of his body, and that- unless he wanted to spend his entire life worrying about people hunting him- he needed to take down Thol''Yr at this very moment. The moment his heart was set in stone on killing the scintillating third realm cultivator, every single speck of hesitation disappeared, and his own will was added to the wrestle between the entity and the Seed.

    Akainmhar watched the scene unfurl without making any sudden movement. He knew that if Thol''Yr managed to secure the Formation back, that would put the pair of cultivator in a dangerous situation that would be hard to control. He had seen the strength of the Bestial Formation, and had fought Thol''Yr in a fair brawl. But he wasn''t sure about being his equal in the case he controlled the Formation.

    "I have to wait for an opportunity to attack him!", thought Akainmhar in his mind as he knew that such opportunity would be difficult to arose in the current situation.

    Thol''Yr felt the control he had on the Bestial Formation lessen. He grounded his teeth, as he swiped his arm on his left side. His movement was directed to a group of towering creatures, that immediately turned into clouds of blood essence and slaughter aura that whiffed in the air in the direction of Thol''Yr.

    They circled around his arm, and in the next moment, turned into a strangely shaped sigil that appeared in the back of his hand. The vigil was crimson dark colored, and was infused with ominous aura and blood energy coming from the creatures.

    "Having to use the seal of the Formation to control it¡­", Thol''Yr gritted his teeth. His ego found the events even worst, as he could feel that the cultivator fighting him for the control of the Formation was only a newly ascended Second Realm cultivator.

    "How did he even manage to fuse the Seed with his own body!?", he somberly thought as his complexion grimed. Dark intent delved in his mind as he felt that Fell''s body was a treasure trove of information.

    That Seed was still a testing subject of their realms. They had used it on several planets, to collect the dense vitality hidden in the soil, but had never gone as far as to fuse the Seed in a body. To his knowledge, such an attempt might have been tested a few time, but the poor result of those experiences ended up with only failures.

    The scientist and wise scholar of their Empire never came to found the way to achieve a perfect fusion, as imbalance would always turn the situation into one, where the Seed would completely devour the person it would fuse with.

    "I will take my time after I beat you to a pulp!", thought Thol''Yr as he activated the gleaming red sigil in his left hand. His control rose in a split second, nearly cutting the connection Fell had with the Bestial Formation.

    His fluent control of the Formation made him put the connected Fell in a quarantined state, drastically reducing the number of resources available for the Illusory Gigantic Tree to absorb.

    "Now I will show you how this is meant to be controlled!", smirked Thol''Yr.

    His facial expression didn''t hide the fact he was mocking the young cultivator, as though showing him that he didn''t need the Seed to achieve better results than him.

    As soon as Fell was nearly rejected from the Formation, the activity of the beast resumed, and under Thol''Yr''s control, the Bestial Formation ran even smoother as he turned into a control hub for the entire energy and aura circulating through the Formation.

    Having wrestled the youth out of the control of the Bestial Formation with ease, Thol''Yr eyes glinted as they turned into crescent shapes, and a beaming condescending smile appeared on his face.

    "Now that I''ve reclaimed order of how things should proceed. I''d have to say that I''m quite surprised by the fusion you''ve managed to produce with the Seed.", none of the past anger he had shown before could be seen in his face. And his voice had turned soft and mellow, as he began conversing with the youth.

    Fell gazed at the scintillating entity in the sky. He snorted coldly once again, and focused his mind on the Illusory Tree as he tried controlling the energy in the Formation with brute force. But it came to no avail, as he felt that the tremendous absorption of the Seed could only amass wisps of slaughter aura that only represented a minor amount of what he could achieve before.

    "You''re quite something, you know?". Thol''Yr continued without any pause as he began slowly hovering toward Fell. The large amounts of slaughter aura and energy he was refining didn''t come to a stop as they formed a tunnel shaped passage he hovered on in his way toward Fell.

    He continued advancing toward the towering creature where the pair of cultivator stood on, and before long, Thol''Yr tunnel ended with his appearance, right in front of Fell. His eyes turned toward the red haired man, before swiftly turning toward Fell.

    "Crap¡­ His senses are locked on me¡­", thought the red haired man as his face turned unsightly. A self deprecating smile appeared on his face, and he couldn''t help but mutter softly as he exhaled.

    "This is on you, kid¡­ I can''t help ya on this one¡­", he thought as his eyes locked on the two opponents.

    Fell saw the scintillating figure standing in the empty air in front of the towering creature. A clear annoyance could be seen in his eyes, as the tone Thol''Yr had taken caused to him to feel a crawling sensation on his skin.

    "Now now¡­ Why take on such a serious expression. I''m only in need of a few answers, no big deal."

 Chapter 304 - Blooming Sapling Part Five

    A crawling sensation coursed through Fell as he gazed at the face of the entity named Thol''Yr. The controlled facial expression of the third realm cultivation reeked of fake demeanor and made him reaffirm his thought. That man, or that entity, whatever it was called in her planet was something that needed to be taken down.

    At any cost.

    "Those eyes¡­", mumbled Thol''Yr softly while looking at Fell''s face. "This isn''t the face one makes when he is prone to a calm conversation."

    "You want to fight me?", Thol''Yr didn''t stop as he deciphered the emotion dwelling in Fell''s eyes.

    The young cultivator heard the entity calmly analyze his train of thoughts, causing a cold sensation to bask around his constricted heart. Fell''s pupil turned into slits as he hissed a sharp breath of air, he closed his eyes, shutting off his senses before softly exhaling the contents of his lungs.

    The next moment he opened his eyes, an emotionless gaze had replaced the c.o.c.ktail of emotions that had been fluttering in his eyes.

    "Eh- Scary!?", overreacted Thol''Yr in purpose with a taunting smile on his lips. His finger moved- the red sigil in his hands turned brighter- and a torrent of blood essence and slaughter aura was delivered on the surrounding Thol''Yr. The tremendous energy began amassing around Thol''Yr, and soon formed a humongous square shaped box that corned the towering beast Fell and Akainmar was standing on.

    "You are planning on taking me down, right?", mumbled Thol''Yr softly as his hands began moving one seal after nothing. Phantom of the red sigil in the back of hands flashed in the void as the hazardous Formation turned into sets of ordered meridians that completely shut down any escape road.

    Fell''s senses spread around him, turning into fine threads that whiffed with the wind, looking for any blind hole in the dense bloodied structure that had appeared around him. His head tilted upward, as he looked past Thol''Yr and gazed at the crimson ceiling that had appeared under the sky.

    He could sense the Illusory Giant standing right outside of the humongous prison Thol''Yr had generated, and felt that there wasn''t much loss of signal due to the Bestial Formation.

    "Now, I won''t have to worry about one of you two fleeing away, or some other similar scenarios that will quickly annoy me.", Thol''Yr exclaimed with a straight face without breaking sight from Fell''s figure.

    Akainmhar saw the scene unfurl in front of him. A minute shivering was constantly produced by his feet, but his figure was completely still and from a distance, his body didn''t betray the acc.u.mulation of kinetic energy. At any moment, notice his body would turn into a streaking arrow, aiming straight at the heart of the flying entity.

    "His senses are constantly on me¡­", thought Akainmhar with a self depracating smile. "I can''t initiate the fight. I''m going to have to count on the kid with this one!".

    He was fully aware that with the alerted state the entity was in, there was simply no way for him to pull off another surprise attack. Having already abused the overconfidence of Thol''Yr in their fights before, he could now only count on the young cultivation on the other side of the towering creatures.

    In fact, Fell was far closer to Thol''Yr compared to Akainmhar, and was without a doubt in a better position to engage the stellar entity. Akainmhar could also sense a clear contempt from Thol''Yr, making him feel that Fell had actual chances of making it work. And Akainmhar could sense that the youth was boiling under the glacial mask he was portraying.

    "Being weaker than him doesn''t mean you can''t take him.", thought the red haired man as he knew that the entity had a tendency to be overconfident. "C''mo-", his train of thought were cut short as he noticed Thol''Yr arms once again move.

    Dozens of seal flashed in the air, in less than a split second, and gathered into a strange bloodied diagram. The light coming from the red sigil turned darker, and in the next moment, the red color of the sigil drooled on the space around it, giving it a deep red hue.

    "Looks like talk will come right after I take off one of your arms.", spoke Thol''Yr in a matter of fact tone. He raised his finger forward, with the drooling red sigil invading the space around him.

    A powerful red light blinded Fell''s vision. He knew that waiting any longer could put him in a far more dangerous situation, one where Thol''Yr could play with both of their lives due to the power of the Formation. Thol''Yr''s body began gradually advancing toward Fell, at the same time, his hand rose slightly in a horizontal position, directed straight at Fell''s position.

    Through the Seed that fused with his soul, Fell sensed the changes happening to the Bestial Formation. The circulation of blood essence and slaughter aura had accelerated to the point where the two main components of the Bestial Formation were beginning to form one form of energy.

    A loud sound similar to a heart beat was heard by Fell. His eyes opened widely, as he sensed that the seal formed by Thol''Yr was hurling in his direction.

    "Please, do try your best on surviving this.", added Thol''Yr as his palm added one last soft push to the red sigil floating in midair.

    Akainmhar''s eyes opened widely, as his legs nearly darted forward, but his stop his impulsive panic in the last moment, due to sensing a strange locking technique constantly monitoring his movement. He knew that the moment he would move, Thol''Yr would react in a way that would force him to divert his attack into a defense, and sadly, that moment would leave Fell alone against Thol''Yr.

    "Noisy!", a cold and harsh voice escape Fell''s lips. Due to the red prison set by Thol''Yr, the silent sigh turned into a powerful wave that echoed through the locked space.

    His word echoed through space several times, with the first few one being as silent and discreet as a fly, but it soon turned into a ravenous force that snowball into a grating roar.

    Noisy! Noisy! Noisy! Noisy!

    Thol''Yr''s facial expression changed, as his pushing palm exerted even more strength on the sigil. He grounded his teeth as his soft facial expression resumed the devilish demeanor had hosted before. The echoes didn''t stop, making him want to disable the young cultivator standing in front of him.

    "I will cripple every single one of his limbs¡­", gritted Thol''Yr through his teeth as his ears could no longer support the grating echoes reverberating through the red prison.

    Noisy! Noisy! Noisy!

    "Shut up!", roared Thol''Yr as he completely slammed the sigil in the direction of Fell. The red sigil shook and warped, as the mass of energy in it began being compressed by Thol''Yr, and was sent straight toward Fell''s position, a red bullet traversed the sky as Fell''s echo continued reverberating.

    Noisy! Noisy! "Die!"

    An alarm rang on the mind of Thol''Yr as he sensed movement outside of the red prison. His eyes darted left and right, as he noticed a violent smirk on the youth''s face, and he could sense that the red haired man had already begun moving toward him.

    "Die!", the words echoing in the confined space changed completely as a tremendous slaughter aura escaped from Fell''s body. A blinding light appeared in the red ceiling as the young cultivator ignored the sigil piercing through in the air, threatening to directly hit his body.

    Die! Die! Die! Die!

    The blinding light was soon accompanied by a sharp intent that popped the walls of the red prison with ease. The vicious wall of energy turned into a gaseous matter than whiffed in the air, and before the energy even began assembling and gathering around Thol''Yr, they separated in two segments as though a sharp object was making its way through it.

    Thol''Yr sensed the changes in his surroundings, the mind of a third realm cultivator was one that had passed many tribulations, and thus made the individual capable of last-second thinking, but the changes that happened around him were swift to the point where he felt himself overrun by a tsunami.

    The red prison he had raised fell in one attack, behind the massive red clouds, appeared the Illusory Giant that had moved for the first time since its appearance. The movement it executed was seen by the towering creatures, a simple swipe with his right hand, the same one that was suffused with exceeding sharpness.

    The Illusory Giant''s attack extended past the red prison, and even turned the sigil flying toward Fell into fine particle, before smashing straight into Thol''Yr.

    Thol''Yr didn''t even have the time to utter a surprised groan, as a deep line appeared on his torso. The next moment, a river of blood spurted out of the deep gash that was dealt by the golden colored Illusory Giant''s attack.

 Chapter 305 - Calamitous Decision Part One

    The air roared with the Illusory Giant''s movement. In the sky, north of New Casablanca, a thin line appeared in the sky before collapsing into a tremendous gash that sliced the sea of clouds in two.

    A powerful sword intent bursted out of the Illusory Giant''s attack. One intent-based attack that made the air screech and scream as though the air was being ripped apart.

    Thol''Yr didn''t expect such an attack to arrive from outside of the crimson prison he had summoned. Not only did the attack comes from outside of his range of control, but the speed of the sharp attack made him unable to react to it in time.

    He only saw a flash of light in the ceiling of the prison, and the next moment, a deep gashing injury had appeared on his torso.

    "Khuh-!", a mouthful of blood flew out of Thol''Yr''s lips as he tried controlling the light particle gathered in his body. His body began blinking rapidly, giving the impression that he would disappear at any moment notice, but the injury in his chest caused him to have difficulty morphing into pure light.

    The injury dealt by Fell''s Illusory Giant caused Thol''Yr unable to quickly shift into light. Noticing that, the experienced entity began gathering the amass of blood essence and slaughter aura into a shield to gather himself some time. His senses detected that the two cultivators nearby wouldn''t leave such an opportunity go to waste.

    His eyes caught on Fell''s moving figure, and his senses told him that Akainmhar was nowhere to be seen.

    "He is coming!?", he growled through his gritted teeth. Thol''Yr''s mind was assaulted with waves of pain coming from the injury on his chest; his body continued blinking, as his surroundings were filled with torrents of the mixed energy from the Bestial Formation.

    A shadowy figure sped through a small crack- that was in the midst of filling- in the bloodied shield, Thol''Yr was rising.

    That speeding shadowy figure was Akainmhar. He had used the opportunity in front of him to make his presence disappear completely, and had immediately begun moving the moment he saw the attack slap Thol''Yr''s chest. But Akainmhar wasn''t the only one who moved, as Fell had already begun executing his next course of action.

    The Illusory Giant once again lifted his right arm toward the sky, and suddenly dropped it toward Thol''Yr''s direction. Another flash of light appeared from a distance, and the dense blood shield Thol''Yr had raised cracked open under the exceedingly sharp sword intent in the attack.

    "This kid¡­", mumbled Akainmhar as he used the opportunity to slide even deeper inside of the blood shield. His surroundings had been turned into a sea of red, and every instant that passed meant that his position was getting closer to the injured Thol''Yr. But the maze-like bubble shield he had entered was dense and compact to the point where he could only slide between the few cracks that formed here and there due to Thol''Yr''s urgent execution.

    Fell controlled the Illusory Giant, and once again, unleashed a third sword strike with the invisible sword formed by the amass of pure sword intent. A half-crescent moon left the phantasmal sword in the Illusory Giant, and coursed through the air in the direction of the third realm entity.

    "You are not going anyway!", Fell exclaimed loudly as the attack he sent from the Illusory Giant screeched through the air before slapping the amass of blood essence and slaughter aura gathered by Thol''Yr to shield himself.

    "Sharp!", hissed Akainmhar as his body was currently swimming inside of the layer of blood essence, shielding the third realm cultivator. But his movement didn''t stop, as his instinct told him that none of the attack coming from the Illusory Giant would touch his body.

    A minute crack opened in front of him, and the red haired man''s body turned soft before passing through the small crack with ease. His eyes could only see layers of red, but his senses aided by his blood treasure told him that the distance separating him from Thol''Yr was constantly reducing.

    Inside of the sea of dense and solid blood essence, Akainmhar turned into a fish that skillfully swam against the current of slaughter aura.

    The scene might sound as though it was slowly unfurling, but the action made by the group of three cultivators was executed in less than split seconds. An explosive eruption that began the moment Fell execute the first attack from the Illusory Giant. The pair of Earthling knew that such opportunity wouldn''t come twice in a row, and if they wanted to come out victors against a superior ranked cultivation, they could only brace themselves and swarm him in one wave.

    Both Earthling were fully aware that injury received by Thol''Yr wouldn''t in no mean incapacitate him for more than a few seconds, but that thought didn''t cause them to despair in front of their troublesome opponent. In the contrary, they braced themselves and released everything they had in an attempt to overpower him in one moment.

    A warped and livid intent spread out of the crimson bubble of blood essence, protecting Thol''Yr. His emotions left his body in an outburst, his heart swearing that he wouldn''t rest before taking down every wisp of life existing in those lands.

    Fell smirked the moment he saw the reaction, and once again rose his hand toward the sky. Only this time, there wasn''t any outburst of sword intent or any other type of attack coming from the Illusory Giant. But a massive change happened to the phantasmal tree rooted behind the giant.

    The Seed existing inside of his Soul Palace finally used the opportunity to once again wrestle control of the Bestial Formation. The Gigantic Tree released a blinding light as a white halo formed around its trunk, as though the atmosphere around him was condensing into milky wisps of air pressure.

    The next moment, a deep roar escaped from the center of the blood shield, and Akainmhar noticed that the density of the shield had drastically fallen.

    In some parts, the mixture of blood essence and slaughter aura were firmly solid. But, in some other parts, the dense shields had turned into a soft membrane that could be pierced with the touch of a single finger.

    "I won''t just stop to that¡­", thought Fell before sending his own energy to the Seed. The absorption coming from the tree rose to its peak, and the next moment, Thol''Yr could feel that the control he had on the Bestial Formation was drastically reduced.

    Anger, stress, and fear appeared on the surface of Thol''Yr''s mind. The third realm entity only needed a few last seconds to finish mending the injury that was dealt with by the Illusory Giant. Without that prickling injury, he wouldn''t be forced into such a crude state. But his life meant more than his esteem, and Thol''Yr would stop at nothing to protect himself.

    He could feel that he only needed two seconds to fully turn into light, and blink away into safety. But, an alarm rang in his mind, and the sigil in his right hand turned dim.

    Thol''Yr sensed the control he had on the Bestial Formation plummet, but the urgency of the situation made him accept that reality. He could only grit his teeth, and focus on controlling the little amount of blood essence and slaughter aura he had gathered before.

    "Just you wait¡­", Thol''Yr growled as he turned the one meter area around him into the densest matter possible. The red sigil in his hand disappeared as the blood essence, and slaughter aura in it was completely used in his last attempt to secure himself the final second needed to heal his injury.

    Milliseconds advanced, and just as the injury in his chest was going to be completely sutured. Leftover of the youth''s sword intent showed the last aspect of his relentless characteristic, as the more the injury healed, the more time it took for the final percent to be finished.

    This characteristic of the sword intent was only noticed by Thol''Yr at the last moment. And just as he was going to completely expel the leftover sword intent, a loud thud resounded from his back.

    The sound was similar to the acute noise produced when a bullet would be fire on a steel plated wall. Only this sound was produced by a fist that was numerous time denser than a bullet, and dozens of time faster.

    A massive fist impact appeared on the red wall surrounding Thol''Yr. His face changed as he sensed a- now-familiar sword intent arriving from the distance. With his back corned against a red wall that was softening with every millisecond that passed, Thol''Yr was forced into doing something he never thought would be necessary.

    Light particle instantly left his body. They circled around him, and in a split second, gathered bits of the fused blood essence and slaughter aura before darting back to his body.

    His eyes turned red, the same pure crimson existing everywhere around him in the Bestial Formation.

 Chapter 306 - Calamitous Decision Part Two

    The same nauseous but sweet odor coming from the army of beasts appeared on Thol''Yr''s body. His blonde hair rose in the air, as bulging red veins appeared on his angelic face.

    Akainmhar''s eyes turned into slits as he noticed the intense pressure rising from Thol''Yr. All of his senses were screaming at him to flee, and he didn''t make them wait long, as the moment he noticed red locks appearing in his opponent''s blond hair, he darted away in a run.

    "You ain''t going anywhere!", a growl escaped Thol''Yr''s lips as his finger pointed at the red-haired Akainmhar.

    A light particle left the tip of his finger; only this time, the light particle he produced had acquired a bright pinkish-red halo.

    Pew!

    A straight line cut the scenery in half before stopping when it made contact with Akainmhar that wasn''t left any time to dodge the attack.

    Fell saw the scene happen in front of him, incapable of helping his comrade as the third realm cultivator had attacked far too quickly. A light burning smell added itself to the many odors picked up by the young cultivator''s nose; his swift eyes caught on a squirming hole in Akainmhar''s chest.

    The flesh around the burned wound was scared black, and small fleshly tendrils moved slowly as the strong cultivator''s body began kneading the injury a few moments after it happened.

    Droplets of sweat fell off the face of the red-haired man. His body lightly shivered as he couldn''t help but feel that he had nearly had his heart crushed into dust. If he hadn''t managed to move his heart a few inches to the side, he would have received substantial damage that would have instantly taken him out of the fight.

    Even with the blood essence treasure he had, he wasn''t sure if the loss of a heart would result in instant death.

    His vast reserve of blood and blood essence couldn''t be compared to the one owned by ordinary body cultivator. Still, a direct attack to his heart wasn''t something he would gladly receive, as he was sure that he would lose most of his fighting capabilities without his heart.

    Although without his heart, blood would still flow in his veins, as he could even manually pump it with the flesh surrounding the veins.

    His heart had been refined hundreds of time during his practice and was practically the core furnace of his volcanic strength. Without it, he would only be akin to the leftover smoke of his past.

    "You are one troublesome bastard.", exclaimed Thol''Yr in a strange tone. "Resourceful cultivators such as you should be taken out first."

    The third realm cultivator nodded slowly as he found his logic suitable for his current situation.

    He once again lifted his arm- in front of him- and lightly pointed at Akainmhar before his arms turned into multiple wh.i.p.s.

    Fell acted as soon as the otherworldly cultivator moved, but his response was one beat slower as his attack was passed from the Illusory Giant.

    Before the giant even had the time to move, Thol''Yr''s arm had already turned into a ghostly limb.

    Dozens of afterimage appeared as the third realm cultivator shot ten times in one instant. Every one of the red lasers that left his finger took a different path; three of them went in a straight way blocking stopping him from any side dodge possible, while the other went in strange curved.

    Two of the lasers even went in a strange lobbed path that predicted any potential escaped road Akainmhar would take.

    Fell''s mind blanked the moment he saw the tight attack. He controlled the Illusory Giant with even more urgency, as he finally managed to send the attack.

    "Crap¡­ I won''t make it in time!". Fell cursed as he sensed the lightning-fast- sharp- attack arriving at the other two''s position. But it was too late as the lasers had already appeared in front of a somber-faced Akainmhar.

    Satisfaction appeared on Thol''Yr, and his lips moved slowly in a condescending smile as he saw his attack completely block any potential action Akainmhar could take.

    As for the man in question, Akainmhar''s face hosted a dark expression, one that shouldn''t appear on the front of someone who was going to dodge an attack.

    "Do not take me lightly.", he barked as a scorching heat left the pores of his body.

    Thud!

    A red shadow streaked through the air, ignoring the laser standing in its path as the sky exploded behind it. Akainmhar appeared in front of Thol''Yr with tightened fists and bulging muscles that threatened to blow with volcanic might.

    In this state, the usually accessible going Akainmhar seemed to have turned into an avatar of destruction. He moved, and all Thol''Yr was able to see after was a flash of light that contained hundreds of fists among it.

    The entity''s vision darkened as an explosive torrent of attack filled it, and the next moment, he felt his vision twist as his body was thrown left and right by the red-haired man.

    "I can''t blink!?", Thol''Yr screamed in his mind. His body tightened, trying to reduce the impact of every attack he received, but his effort were far too insufficient in front of the hundreds of move unleashed every second by the red haired man.

    The air clapped, as the atmosphere thundered. Fell sensed the surface under his leg tremble, and shiver, the towering creature he stood upon was jerking right and left as the ground north of New Casablanca seemed to have turned into shifting tectonic plaques. His eyes caught on the sword attack- sent by the Illusory Giant- hit the empty air, and his eyes moved left and right as he could only find signs of the impact made by Akainmhar.

    The strong body cultivator unleashed hell on his opponent, launching hundreds of attacks every time he attacked. He could feel the sensation of Thol''Yr''s skin softening under his hammering fists, and before long, the first bone he crushed spread through the battlefield in a thundering roar.

    "I will destroy your entire planet!", roared Thol''Yr as he found himself unable to do anything but that. The hundreds of impact he received every passing second caused his voice to warp into a grumbling groan that disappeared in the torrent of sounds produced by the one-sided beating.

    "Shut up.", briskly responded Akainmhar in the middle of pounding Thol''Yr''s head on the ground.

    Thud! Thud! Thud!

    Dozens of towering creatures fell on the ground as their body parts exploded and spilled on the ground. They had, sadly, stood in the trajectory of Thol''Yr''s flying body, and even their thick skin and flesh wasn''t enough to stop the kinetic energy Akainmhar had injected in Thol''Yr''s body with his hundred-hit advance.

    The third realm cultivator''s body turned into a kite that crossed half of the army of beasts before coming to a stop. An enormous crater appeared on the ground he landed on, or to be more precise, fell on like a broken rag doll.

    Ten seconds passed, and only then did Thol''Yr feel a second where he felt like he could breathe. Thousands of pain signals sent to his brain from his broken body. Akainmhar''s attack had been relentless and savage, turning Thol''Yr''s body into a magnet of destruction where every one of his twisted limbs dangled on the wrong side.

    Black and red were the only things that filled the body of the third realm cultivator. A far cry from his past fair skin before facing the pair of cultivators.

    A weak cough left his throat, as even his neck broke under the thousands of fist attack.

    Thol''Yr found himself incapable of executing even the simple action of mending his body. His reserves had been emptied in one rush by Akainmhar, and he was in the most broken-down state he had even attained during his long life.

    In the past, he faced many injuries during his long career in the numerous battlefields in the vast universe.

    Before that time, he had faced his peers in an arduous training that made his days a living nightmare. But even then, he hadn''t felt like he had been trashed, and had always managed to bite back a chunk of flesh from his opponent.

    Sadly, on Earth, he found himself facing one loss after another, and had even been cornered to the point where none of the trades he did ended up being good.

    Akainmhar''s legs failed him the moment his relentless rush of attack came to a stop. The experienced earthling felt a stinging pain traverse his heart, as though his blood had turned into a poisonous- corrosive- matter that pierced numerous holes in his own flesh. Waves upon waves of nausea assaulted his soul as he found it impossible even to stand up.

    The second realm body cultivator had spent every drop of energy he had in his body and had even used every bit of blood essence existing in his treasure, not leaving anything even for his recovery.

    The price he paid was enormous, seen through from his heavily emaciated state, and every second that passed, his flesh turned into smoke as his bulging muscles turned into vapors that whiffed with the air.

    Nonetheless, the result of that sacrifice was incredible, as his shaky vision could see that Thol''Yr wasn''t capable of any movement.

 Chapter 307 - Calamitous Decision Part Three

    Fell''s eyes opened widely, the area north of New Casablanca seemed to have been ravaged by a raging storm. He exerted some strength in his legs, and left the back of the towering creature with a light tap of his feet on the rough skin.

    The direction of his jump was directed at the kneeling red haired man, and before long, he landed on the ground before speeding toward his injured comrade.

    The moment he entered the area- ten meter- around Akainmhar, the latter swiftly urged Fell to ignore him. His emaciated face turned weakly toward the young cultivator, causing him to perceive the extent of his energy expenditure.

    "I need to end him before he somehow manages to reconstruct himself¡­", mumbled Fell as he didn''t stop for another second.

    His legs began taking him to the place where Thol''Yr''s body had landed. His surroundings turned into lines as he sped through the army of creatures that seemed at lost as to what had happened around them.

    Due to Thol''Yr''s influence, the numerous beasts that had managed to escape the control of the Formation were once again forced into their malicious fate and had reverted to the mindless state where they only relayed their blood essence and slaughter aura.

    Fell''s heart turned heavy; the more he approached Thol''Yr''s position. He didn''t know the exact reasoning behind that sensation, but ever since the loss of his memories, he could only rely on instinct to judge the situation. And to top it off, his breakthrough to the second realm of cultivation had only made that sense sharper.

    By the time he could clearly see the third realm cultivator''s mangled body, his face darkened, causing him to accelerate his dashing steps. "His connection to the Bestial Formation didn''t change, and I can''t feel any movement of energy directed at him¡­ Then why?!", he mumbled as he could feel the inner state of the Formation due to the Seed that fused with him.

    "Why can''t I brush off this feeling?!", his grim face froze into an unmovable statue as his right hand gripped Soldier''s Fortune tighter. Nonetheless, his steps didn''t stop as he was aware that such opportunities wouldn''t happen twice. He needed to kill that entity.

    His steps resounded silently through the silent battlefield. Before long, Fell''s shadow laid next to Thol''Yr''s body on the ground. His blade moved before stopping abruptly midway as he heard a silent whisper escape the entity''s throat.

    He couldn''t understand the words coming out of his lips, as they turned into crooked whispers due to Thol''Yr''s crushed vocal cords, but the ominous vibe appearing on the twisted face of the entity made his skin crawl. The carcass laying in the ground could be assimilated to anything but strength, as Fell saw with his eyes that the third realm cultivator Thol''Yr was no longer capable of making the most basic of movement.

    His past delicate yet dense flesh was turned into a near mush-like state that wasn''t capable of any movement. His flesh could be seen trying to gather together, but it could only weakly lightly without any result. Sharp broken bones could be seen poking out of places they shouldn''t have, and even his skull wasn''t left untouched as a massive hole entered Fell''s eyes. The squirming brain laying under it clearly appeared under his eyes.

    Eyes that could no longer contain his thought as he felt his instinct scream to his mind. But his senses clearly told him that there wasn''t any enemy attacking him, as every single life form apart from Akainmhar and Thol''Yr were already part of the Bestial Formation. Thus making them part of his own control due to the influence of the Gigantic Tree on the Bestial Formation.

    But even then, his instinct screamed that his logic was lacking one component that left his mind. And that component he wasn''t aware off could clearly be seen on Thol''Yr''s hideous expression.

    His face was a canvas that rarely appeared among mortals. The third realm cultivator had been turned into a living corpse that would cause questions to appear in the mind of anyone who laid an eye on it. Yet the expression hanging in his face was one of confidence in successfully accomplishing his desires of destruction, and the emotions dwelling in his eyes only added contrast to the painting.

    Fell''s ear caught on another silent whisper that escaped the hollow lips of the entity. Once again, the young cultivator didn''t understand the words, but the emotion dwelling on the entity''s eyes intensified. Time seemed to come to a standstill, with Fell''s sword hanging over the third realm cultivator''s shambled body. Capable of severing his life at any moment.

    Akainmhar saw the scene from afar, and couldn''t help but ask himself why was Fell taking so long to take down the defenseless third realm cultivation. But even if he wanted to Thol''Yr dead, he could only watch the scene happen from afar as he wasn''t capable of moving his pent up body.

    Fell''s shadow in the distance blurred as Akainmhar''s mind was stricken by waves upon waves of dizziness. Every time his eyelid dropped in a bat, he felt as though his consciousness was going to slip into the oblivions.

    "Crap¡­", he thought as he tried besting the instinctive dizziness assaulting his mind. His fatigue was an intrinsic backlash to the technique he had used; the explosive rush had came with a tremendous price. As his body entered a tremendously tired state where his self preservation instinct caused him to slowly black out.

    But the experienced and battltehardened Akainmhar resisted the sensation to his best as he feared that a third realm cultivator wouldn''t die before taking out every single one of their cards. And he wasn''t the only one with that type of thought as Fell mentally assigned his- screaming- instinct''s alarm to originate from that.

    "In the end¡­ Even if there is a danger lying behind this entity''s death. He know far too much, and had come with nefarious intents¡­"

    "This man need to die!", he thought as he clenched his teeth hard before flicking his arm. The angle was simple, aimed straight at cutting the entity in half, and the execution was swift as, after a flash of light, the entity''s crushed internal organs laid bare under the sky.

    The sensation of his sword slicing the third realm cultivator''s flesh wasn''t anything satisfying to Fell, as the sensation coming from his screaming instinct intensified during that moment. But it was far too late as both the decision and the execution had been taken in one beat by the young cultivator who now could only see the last moment of the entity''s life fade away.

    The squirming of his flesh didn''t stop for dozens of seconds, as life defiantly hang in the indescribable carcass. But, in the same way an hourglass could only flow for a certain period of time, the life hanging in the flesh came to a sudden stop with Thol''Yr''s life finally coming to an end.

    It was at that moment that Fell''s mind felt the wrongness of the situation. A gloomy and obscure premonition arose in his heart, one that his eyes confirmed right after the third realm cultivator died. The blood that had been flooding the soil near the sliced carcass began slowly floating in the air.

    Dense blood essence mixed with a vicious slaughter aura were added to the Bestial Formation as Fell could sense the change caused by that liberation of strength. A power that could only be achieved when one attained the third realm of cultivation was added to the dangerous Bestial Formation.

    "He had already transitioned into an abyssal beast of the Formation before his death¡­", he muttered in a pessimistic way as he focused his senses on the Sapling that had sprouted in his Soul Palace.

    His senses fused with the Seed, and the control he had on the Bestial Formation rose to the point where he could monitor every speck of energy contained in it. The torrential flow of blood essence and slaughter aura flowed through the beasts, among them was the fused energy that came from Thol''Yr. Although similar to the rest of the mass of energies mixed in the Bestial Formation, the fused energy coming from Thol''Yr was clearly standing in a higher realm than the rest.

    A concentration of pure destructive blood essence that had fused with the heavy slaughter aura of the formation. Before long, that fused energy separating into thousands of thread that began flowing through every single towering creature of the formation.

    Fell tried stopping that process, but he soon came to a massive hurdle. He simply couldn''t control that fused energy as it wasn''t something the Seed was capable of doing.

    "That red sigil¡­", muttered the young cultivator as his eyes flashed with the light of remembrance. He couldn''t help but find that the fused energy- that had appeared in the Bestial Formation- to be extremely similar to the red sigil Thol''Yr had manifested before.

 Chapter 308 - Calamitous Decision Part Four

    After concluding that he couldn''t stop the influence left by Thol''Yr in the Bestial Formation, Fell tried solving the problem as he gazed at the formation from several other perspectives.

    "That red sigil he had manifested during our fight seemed to have granted him the highest control possible in the formation. After fusing with that sigil and completely making himself part of the formation, that bastard has added a third realm cultivator this ominous construct¡­". His eyes darted left and right as he reminded himself of the little information he had noticed during their fight.

    "If I leave it unsolved¡­ I wouldn''t be surprised if a beast with the strength of a third realm cultivator rises from within their ranks¡­", he muttered softly as his figure began moving through the army of enormous sized creatures.

    His senses hang tightly around the Sapling that had sprouted in his Soul Palace. The inseparable link formed between them made him connect to the large web-shaped Bestial Formation.

    "But I feel that this isn''t the sole crux of the matter¡­", he mumbled softly as he assessed the strength of each creature part of the formation. "With the pace of their progress, the event where a third realm entity would happen to be born from the creatures was vowed to happen¡­", his mind didn''t stop working as he mutinously analyzed the creatures blood essence.

    The young cultivator felt a looming sensation traverse his heart, and after dozens of seconds passed, he came to the simple conclusion that the fusion of blood essence with slaughter aura wasn''t vowed to happen this early within the formation.

    "If this theory happens to be true¡­ Then this formation will turn into its true form!", he gloomed on the matter with a somber face. "I need to quickly find a way to isolate the fused energy of the formation.", his own thought caused his face to sulk even further as Fell couldn''t find a solution to the hurdle.

    "If I can''t control it¡­ Then how can I isolate it?", he asked himself in urgency as he knew that he was on his own against the blooming calamity that threatened to develop to its last stage. The explosive and destructive character of the fused energy made him shiver as he knew that such changes would raise the volatile blood essence of the formation to the next level.

    Amidst the hundreds of blood essence signals caught by his senses, one of them stood out of the rest due to its lack of any explosive characteristic. Fell also recognized That blood essence as being Akainmhar''s own.

    "His strength is nearly inexistent¡­", he mumbled slowly before making his way toward Akainmhar''s position. With two spatial steps, he arrived to the kneeling red haired man''s place, and Fell''s eyes turned into slits the moment he crossed sight with him.

    "He is unconscious.", he exclaimed in a matter of fact tone. The situation couldn''t be changed as the red haired man had indeed used every parcel of strength hidden in his body, and had abused the limit of power that a second realm cultivator was supposed to have.

    Fell could only sigh regretfully, as he was aware that Akainmhar''s treasure would have come handy in the current situation. His type of thinking was simple. If the Sapling of Strength he had wasn''t capable of controlling the fused energy of the formation alone, then with the addition of the blood essence treasure, he might have hijacked the priorities of the Bestial Formation.

    Before long, Fell sat on the bare ground next to the unconscious Akainmhar. The hollow breathing coming from the red haired man, added themselves to the silence of the army of creatures. Each second that passed made his heart loom with pessimistic thoughts as he could feel that the fused energy had made its way to every single being of the army of beasts.

    Inside of their blood vessel, the tiny treads of fused energy began affecting the vast blood essence energy existing in them. Even if the fused power only added up to less than one percent of the blood essence coursing through the beasts'' bodies, that fact didn''t stay true for an extended period of time. As less after less than a minute of passing time, that one percent turned into two.

    Lightning coursed through his mind as his eyes opened widely. The moment the thread of fused essence multiplied, he noticed that the slaughter aura in the Bestial Formation had lessened. His eyes glowed softly as he understood that blocking off their absorption of slaughter aura could solve the problem.

    He clenched his sword hand tighter around Soldier''s Fortune, as a phantasmal tree bloomed behind his back. At the same moment, the gigantic tree disappeared from behind the illusory giant in the sky. The latter turned into glinting stars that whiffed with the air current, disappearing without leaving any trace as Fell retrieved the energy of his ego body back inside of his Soul Palace.

    Soldier''s Fortune screeched as the power of the Sapling coursed through its metal. The blade scintillated with a powerful light that obscured the surroundings of the young cultivator, and the next moment, fine threads of slaughter aura began making their way toward him. They approached his body before flowing along his arm and toward the burning red blade of Soldier''s Fortune.

    His weapon turned into an incandescent flame under the absorption of slaughter aura.

    "This might be the way!", he thought as his eyes glowed with determination. Fell focused his senses on monitoring the changes of energy in the Bestial Formation, and if at first, his solution produced positive results as the beasts'' absorption of slaughter aura was drastically reduced.

    "What?!", the light in his eyes disappeared as he felt a change happen after less than a second had passed. Wisps of the slaughter aura he was absorbing diverted toward the creatures as though every single one of them seemed to have acquired the same priority as him.

    "¡­!", the speechless Fell stood silently.

    Nonetheless, he didn''t stop Soldier''s Fortune from absorbing the slaughter aura as it would still result in slowed process. Seconds passed, as he felt that his efforts were out weighted by the c.u.mulative work of every thread of fused essence.

    "If I kill the creatures, the process of the bestial formation will be sped up. Unless I manage to take down every single one of them in the same instant without leaving time for the formation to act.", he exclaimed softly as he crossed off that as being akin to shooting a bullet through his own head.

    At some point, frustration had built up to the point where Fell could only shove his hands through his hair in an attempt to calm himself. None of the idea he came up with ended up useful in the situation, and only added themselves to the grating sensation that had stuck with Fell since he killed Thol''Yr.

    He wasn''t even in a state where he could regret his action since Thol''Yr knew far too much about his secrets. He had to die, and on top of that, the Bestial Formation''s last stage had already been launched by him. Nothing could stop the ticking bomb standing next to the city-state of New Casablanca.

    Fell could only watch the progress of every creature in the formation with gritted teeth. Nonetheless, his mind constantly stayed connected with the Sapling in his Soul Palace as he attempted to control the fused essence left by Thol''Yr while slowing down the process to the best result he could achieve.

    A minute passed, and the fused thread of essence grew in percentage inside of every single towering creatures. It fed off the blood essence of each creature, and made the huge fleshly bombs absorb streams of slaughter aura. With the growth of the fused essence, came the growth of priority of every beast, making Fell feel as thought his effort at slowing them was leaving the wind.

    "What can I do?", he asked himself in a soft- desperate- tone that reverberated in a bitter echo through the vast space where the formation had laid its home. And from two percent, the fused essence in the creature rose to fill three percent of the energy in the beasts. "Can I even do something in this situation?", the young cultivator doubted himself as his frustration rose to greater heights.

    The clock of time ticked forward, with it came the growth of fused essence that rose with every passing minute. By the time the advancement rose to the point where the fused essence composed more than five percent of the beasts constitution. Fell stopped the absorption of slaughter aura.

    He didn''t do such an act on purpose, but it had happened naturally as the creatures'' absorption of slaughter aura rose to the point where his effort was meaningless in front of their beehive action. During that time, he noticed a specific event happening inside of the beasts, as the thread of fused essence had curled up into small pellets.

    Cores of pure destruction that made the fused essence stable enough to open up even further margin of progress before the energy ran amok inside of the creatures.

 Chapter 309 - Calamitous Disaster Part Five

    Right after the appearance of the fused cores inside of the towering creatures, a change happened to them, as their range and speed of absorption rose. A snowballing event unfurled in the senses of the young cultivation.

    Fell could only see the Bestial Formation leave the range of his influence. He could no longer change the transforming sensation, and a looming disaster crawled right in the next corner of the day.

    As the minutes passed, the fused energy inside of the beast rose to a higher degree, and before long, the first cases of disturbance caused by the energy growth rose.

    One creature in two that managed to raise its fused cores to six percent of completion face. Their bodies turned into powerful blood bombs that created deep crater in the ground, and their blood essence and fused energy- they left behind their volcanic death- mixed even further as they served as a boost of growth to the other creatures in the formation.

    "This batch of death has raised the global percentage of fused essence to 7 percent!?", he muttered as his face darkened even further. At some point, Fell turned to Akainmhar and deeply looked at his body that had stayed in the same kneeling position.

    The red-haired man had turned into a solid statue, his muscles didn''t move a single inch and his breathing was hollow to the point where it was undetectable if he didn''t focus on it.

    "It''s going to take him a long period of time to recover¡­", he mumbled as he could sense the minuscule amount of blood essence appearing.

    Hesitation flashed in the eyes of the young cultivator. His gloominess and internal distrust could easily be seen on his facial expression, and the idea of retreating away and leaving the doomed surrounding of the city began materializing in his mind.

    "I can''t change anything here¡­", he mumbled softly as his eyes turned toward the walls of the city. The energy shield could be seen blinking and glitching as its battery had been lowered by the advancement of time.

    The sun in the sky was already falling down. As the red colored Bestial Formation was gradually being tainted by the mellow color coming from the falling sun, basking it with a hue that announces its future destructive intent.

    With his influence lessened, the young cultivator found himself cornered with his hand chained behind his back.

    Killing the creatures would result in faster growth while leaving them be would still result in the same growth.

    His actions had lost all meanings, and part of his soul felt distressed due his lack of grasp on the situation, making him feel drowned by the event.

    "A grasp on destiny¡­", he mumbled as that sentence flashed in his thought. He didn''t understand where did it come, but that sentence made the young cultivator choose the option of retreating.

    His senses could traverse the energy wall. And due to that, he had managed to check any sign of lifeforms in the main district before coming to the conclusion that the citizen had escaped their home. When he confirmed it, he immediately grabbed the red haired man immobile body before making his way to the city.

    He lifted the red haired man with his hand and turned into a streaking shadow that traversed the distance separating him from the walls of the city in mere seconds. He only came to a stop in front of the massive energy shield, and before long, he dropped Akainmhar on his side before gazing at the blue energy shield.

    "It is starting to loose its substance¡­", he mumbled as he lifted his hand and touched the energy shield. He felt a slight rebound makes his muscles shake, and nodded slightly before closing his eyes.

    "I just need to made a small spatial step through this¡­", he muttered before reminding himself that he had to take Akainmhar with him. "Yet it isn''t a possible option¡­", he added as he knew that taking someone with him through his spatial step wasn''t something he was capable of.

    A few seconds passed as he focused himself on the purple expanse in his Soul Palace. And when he opened them, spatial elements could be seen flickering in the middle of his pupils. He crouched slightly, and grabbed the red haired Akainmhar before taking a step forward. At first, his body was confronted with the pushing force of the energy shield.

    He ignored the pushing force of the energy wall, and threw Akainmhar inside of the city before following him. His soul energy flickered, and the young cultivator found himself inside of the main district.

    The familiar streets of the main district- the place where he had lived ever since he left the core- entered his eyes, but he couldn''t remember anything as those memories had been lost with the renaissance of his ego body. His rebirth might have saved his soul from turning into the oblivion, but it didn''t make him regain his memory as those had been lost before that process.

    He felt a thug in his heart, and felt that something was amiss. His eyes couldn''t help but flash with reminiscence, but the only thing that surfaced in his mind was the obscure void.

    His cloudy eyes gazed at the signs of passage of the beasts, as he understood that the city had nearly been taken in one go during the day. But had managed to push back the army of creatures behind the energy shield. "The blood is still fresh¡­", he muttered lightly as he flooded his brain with information in purpose, in an attempt to fill the void in his soul.

    Fell didn''t like the sensation of his heart clutching against his ribcage, and the void that came with his attempt at remembering his past caused him to feel distressed. He didn''t manage to stop the Bestial Formation, and yet again he wasn''t able to remember his past. Thus, he decided to let his body and mind receive a torrent of information from his surroundings.

    He stepped through the street with his hand clenched around Akainmhar''s belt. His soft steps resounded through the empty street of the city as his eyes caught of hundreds of small details that showed the aftertaste of the bestial attack. Footsteps- the size of a small care- were spread all over the floor of the street where the attack had happened.

    Broken tiles, and semi-coagulating blood had formed a greasing red area that drenched Fell''s blood. A special kind of oil seemed to have been mixed with the blood, stopping it from fully coagulating.

    Then, he came to meet the first corpse. Or to be more exact, a metallic carcass that seemed to resemble a crushed armor. The crushed steel was tainted with small bits of red that seemed to originate from its inside, showing that the metallic armor had ended up crushing the individual it was supposed to protect.

    He continued advancing down the street he came through with his senses spread toward the surrounding of the street. His nose twitched as his expression changed slightly due to the nauseous odor that entered his nose. His eyes caught on the source of that horrific odor.

    A few dozens meters forward could be seen a mass of burned corpse. All of them metallic sheet of crushed alloy that oozed of fuming blood and oil.

    "What a disastrous loss¡­", he muttered as he understood that the fight had been a complete one sided battle.

    After a minute of travel, he came to see another sign of the creatures. A half-devoured carcass could be seen on the floor, as though the creature that left it had deemed it was no longer nutritious to it.

    He continued traversing the city, his sense left his soul and spread all over the north part of the main district. His expression changed as he caught on a creature in the distance, his step accelerated as his walk smoothly transitioned into a dashing advance.

    Fell''s sight turned into a straight line, and before long, he traversed dozens of street before being able to see the source of the signal his sense picked up. It was a creature that seemed to have come from the same batch of beast as the one outside of the city, only this one seemed to have gone off-road from the rest of its peers.

    While Fell could feel the creature''s strength through its muscles. It barely stood in the second realm and was clearly weaker than the creature outside. The impact of missing the baptism of to the Bestial Formation could be seen directly in its relative strength and height. Its body hadn''t yet morphed into the defiant shaped physique of the creatures- part of the Bestial Formation- but it nonetheless still managed to create interest in his mind.

    "This will make a good ride¡­", he mumbled as he jumped toward the proud creature that caught sign of him the moment he approached. A threatening roar escaped from its throat- sounding like a bark from thunder itself- as it lunged toward Fell.

    Fell saw the creature''s sharpened fangs slice the air in thin lines as they were aimed at cutting his trajectory.

 Chapter 310 - A Familiar Renewal Part One

    The young cultivator''s eyes quickly caught on the creature''s attack. His body continued advancing through the air toward the beast''s jaw. A sharp glint appeared on the intelligent creature, that glinted could be assimilated to smirking lips that felt confident on their victory.

    "Looks like this beast think he''s the real deal.", thought Fell as he tightened his grip around Akainmar''s belt before throwing him up. He added a slight forward angle, predicting the creature''s future position at the same time as his hand moved.

    Without Akainmhar''s dead weight, Fell found himself free for a split second as his body moved strangely in the air. His trajectory path changed slightly, turning into a wave pattern that easily evaded the creature''s jaw.

    The creature''s jaw shut down in an explosive clap. Sadly to it, Fell had easily evaded its attack, and the fierce creature ended up swallowing the air.

    As for Fell, his wave-like movement stopped right after he passed next to the beast, and he landed on the beast''s back and lifted his leg. The sole of his feet fell back on the creature''s back, as a sensation of heaviness made the creature''s joint creek. Half a beat after it, his arm moved as he caught the unconscious Akainmhar without any difficulty.

    From finding the beast to dominating it into submission, Fell had needed less than a minute to execute those two things. The submission part, in particular, had been executed in one swift motion. As the next moment, Fell directed the creature with light and heavy steps that ordered it around.

    At first, the creature tried ignoring his order, and Fell even thought that it was playing with his nerves. But after a few cold harrumph, and dozens of heavy step- that nearly broke the creature''s spine- the towering creature turned docile as it began moving through the city.

    From the back of the creature, Fell gained a decent height and was able to see much more of the scenery in the north part of the main district. His jaw lightly dropped as he could see the extent of destruction that arose to the city.

    The same scenery that came to his eyes, when he entered the city for the first time, was once again reflected in his pupils. Due to the memory loss induced by the near destruction of his soul, from his point of view, this was the first time he was entering the city.

    The unfamiliarity of the view of this city- he felt he''d never seen before- was mixed with the familiarity that arose from his soul. The entire situation caused him to feel strangely out of place, and his silent advance through the no-mans'' land intensified that sensation even more.

    All he wanted was to leave this deserted area, and thus he extended his sense in massive range. Fell''s attempt at sensing life form was concluded after a few seconds, as in the distance, he sensed thousands of weak signals grouped in a tight area.

    He eyed at the distance, far deep in the city, and roughly judged the position of the citizen before lightly pressing down with his leg on the creature''s back. The sensible beast understood the order coming from its new master and began making its way through the city with steady steps.

    The creature even lightened its steps, and made its best in accommodating his master by taking care of his balance. Before long, the towering creature speedily crossed dozens of long street and made its way to the inner layer of the main district.

    During the travel, Fell didn''t stop his senses from basking in the silent ambiance of the main district. Massive walls- the size of a small mountain- appeared behind a building that entered Fell''s eyes.

    And as though the creature under him felt his intent, it accelerated and before long, he was looking at the massive wall while standing at its base.

    He crouched slightly, preparing to jump on the wall, as he wanted to acquire the view of what stood behind those massive walls. But just as his legs were going to quit the floor, the creature under him darted upward as its leg muscles turned into a long and dense spring.

    It quickly rose high, and only after a few seconds did the beast slowed down as it smoothly passed over the wall.

    A massive array of factory entered the eye of the young cultivator. Every one of them looked similar to the other, and the young cultivator felt as thought his sight was flooded with the sea of ordered construct.

    His range of view fell sharply at the same pace as the creature under him approached the ground. The next moment, the massive creature was already running on a broad highway that stood in the middle of the steel forest.

    "Looks like this is the only way¡­", he mumbled as he could sense the signal coming from the end of the highway.

    The first part of the travel through the highway was spent without any pause, and only when he noticed a massive factory in the middle of the journey did he stop for a few seconds and gazed at him before resuming his trip.

    The beast under him sensed Fell''s restless thought, and the bulging leg of the creature kicked the ground with even more velocity than before. Fell didn''t have any difficulty staying still on the back of the dashing creatures, and under their speedy advance, another massive factory entered his eyes.

    The creature under him also noticed it. And as though it had sensed his gaze, it came to a swift stop in an area that gave a good view to the cultivator mounting it.

    "What a sensible creature¡­", muttered Fell while looking away from the second mother factory he had met in his road. He had guessed that those grander construct probably served as a controlling command to the rest.

    Sensing that its master wasn''t interested in the factory. The towering creature resumed its journey, once again making Fell recognized its worth due to its peculiar intelligence and submissiveness.

    "I still need to keep an eye on it¡­", he thought quietly as his eyes fell on the creatures he had just tamed. "Keen creatures like these can be quite a hurdle if they ran havoc. Better to take precaution now¡­".

    He felt that violence wasn''t a sufficient means to fully control such a creature, and had thus decided to raise his influence on the creature to a whole other level. He closed his eyes, and focused his malleable sense inwardly as he began controlling his blood. He lifted his arm, and extended the index finger of his right hand over the thick skin of the creature he mounted.

    A pearly drop of blood slid between the opened pores of his skin before falling on the creature''s thick skin in the same way dew would glide out of leaves. In the same way his blood left his body without any opening, the drop of water seemed to have acquired a consciousness from Fell''s intent as it pierced through the creature''s pore and infiltrated his body.

    Fell sensed that a shiver coming from the creature he mounted, and the next moment, the beast rose in speed as thought it had been frightened when it sensed amiss was happening on the vessel near Fell.

    He controlled that crystalline droplet of blood that contained the power of two of his cultivation path through the beast''s blood vessel. "With one cycle, the power in that drop will have been diluted with the rest of the creature''s own blood. Making my intent exist in nearly every parcel of this creature''s existence.", he muttered as he focused himself on refining the mount under his leg.

    The amount of shaking that happened to his mount rose as the refining process advance. With the last phase forcing Fell to use one last bout of violence to make the creature resume its advance.

    And by the time he finished, the creatures seemed to have resigned to its fate as it focused on advancing through the highway. Fell judged the distance separating him from the signal, and knew that he only need dozen of minute of travel with the speed of the creature under him.

    "No one they lost in front of them¡­", he mumbled as with his advance came an upgrade in the precision of his sense. The signal that came from his front made him doubt how they hadn''t been annihilated.

    "No wonder they raised that energy shield¡­", thought before focusing his vision on the distance. "Eh¡­", he muttered softly as he noticed something in front of him.

    Due to the highway was a straight line, Fell''s superior sight picked on a pin sized black point in the distance.

    His hand rose to his head as he lightly tilted his neck forward. He focused his sight on the tiny black point in the distance, and the small point turned into a black vehicle in his eyes.

 Chapter 311 - A Familiar Renewal Part Two

    A black colored vehicle streaked through the highway, attached to it, was a small platform containing that contained two MechSuits. The jeep shaped car was coming straight from the Core, and urgency could be seen in the focused eye of the driver.

    "We need to stop that monstrosity before it arrives at the Core.", muttered the thirty aged soldier that led the operation. "Do not worry. Our mission isn''t to kill it, but to contain it for a set amount of time for the necessary preparation are finished."

    The face of the soldiers- sitting in front of him inside of the vehicle- tensed as a wry smile appeared on their fatigued face. They could only accept the order they have received and had taken as they had been the closest and the less damaged of the team nearby to the creature.

    "How did it manage to come here this fast?", muttered one of the man. The other individual heard the puzzling question he asked himself of their group, but none of them was able to give him an answer as they hadn''t expected the creature left inside of the city to follow their step this quickly.

    "I truly can''t comprehend that either.", mumbled another as he clenched the rifle in his hand closer to him. They had seen the creature that had resisted the formation of the energy shield.

    Silence spread in the car that sped through the highway. The soldiers'' eyes glowed softly as their short memory of the day led them to have difficulty speaking. Their leader noticed that, and knew that their mission was a difficult one counting the current situation.

    They were forced to face the same enemy that stomped them at the first light of the day, and forced them to flee out of their homes. Even worse than that, they had seen the creature they were going to face, and also had the privilege to gaze at him when it fought its peers.

    They were also profoundly scared by their speed of evolutions, and were afraid to meet something they couldn''t even stand next to. In the end, even the leaders of this squad couldn''t accurately probe the danger of the mission.

    "Remember that our task is to hold the creature. Our first goal will be to gather information about its spec, remember to never blink before having judge its speed and attacking range. Do not try to go for the kill, you will just end you sending yourself to the afterlife.", he ended before looking at the small sized screen laying on his lap.

    "We will make contact in exactly one minute.", he exclaimed as his raised his head from the holographic tablet and added briskly. "We will stop now. Go equip your Mechsuits.", his eyes were directed at the two silent soldiers that were sitting in the back of the vehicle.

    The vehicle came smoothly to a stop a few seconds after the driver began slowing down, and Ronnie came out of the car with a blank face. He calmly walked to the small platform attached to their vehicle, with the other soldier following shortly after him. Without a word, they skillfully equipped the armored suit and made their way back to their leader.

    The reason those two were chosen to drive the two MechSuits they had at hand was due to their skill. As the pieces of equipment have shortly fallen in number due to the diaspora they had to execute, and due to the fact that only a small amount of time had passed since they lost hold of the central district. The mechanic corps of the armed force had found it challenging to maintain every armored suit they had.

    Especially with the fact that they were focused on trying to raise the power of MechSuits. After facing the beasts and the otherworldly cultivator''s might, the city had come face to face with the harsh reality of the universe and had been forced to strive for survival.

    With that spirit in mind, those two modified MechSuit had been birthed in less than a few hours. The strength and instability of the upgraded armors could only be bested by the skill it demanded for it to be used in combat. And after a collective decision, that post was gifted to the two silent soldiers.

    The other member of the squad were aware that those two were survivor of the original northern army. Some called them skilled, other thought of them as lucky individuals, but reality made it luck was an essential factor in a soldier''s life through the battlefields.

    Nonetheless, they had stopped the army of creature in a small sized battlefield where they couldn''t even maneuver themselves.

    The leader of the squad gazed deeply at the glinting armors and nodded toward the two. He turned toward the rest, and confirmed that everybody was ready before asking the woman driving to step on the gas pedal.

    The car''s engine hummed silently as the vehicle resumed its journey. Shortly after that, two thundering roar spread as steely shadows glided close to the ground in their pursuit of the car.

    A dreadful minute passed as the two MechSuits didn''t find it difficult to follow the vehicle. Before long, a red colored construct could be seen in the distance. As they approached it, tension filled the heart of the soldiers, as even the squad leader felt a ball of steel appear in his stomach.

    The thirty aged Leove focused himself on regulating his breathing. It took the experienced man only a few second to get a hold on himself, and before long, he rose from his chair as his hand clicked on a board attached to the interior of the vehicle. The top part of the vehicle opened, and two drones escaped out of it and made their way to the sky.

    Leove took out a long and thin case that sat on an empty chair behind him, and opened it in one swift motion. His hand danced as he began fiddling with what was contained inside of it. And before long, he took out a long shaped metallic tube from the case.

    "I hope this thing isn''t just an empty lie¡­", he muttered as he hadn''t had the opportunity to test the weapon in the Core. He had only been shown the instruction, and the mode it contained, but there wasn''t any target to shoot at in the Core.

    He stood on top of one of the empty seat, and sat on his knee, making the leather surface under him crease from his weight. His finger followed a specific line that doodled on the surface of the cylindric tube he held, and the metallic weapon morphed as several parts appeared around it. A grip that perfectly fit Leove''s hand appeared around it as the metallic object began pushing on his shoulder.

    In less than a second, a sniper shaped rifle appeared in the grasp of his hand. He gazed at with unhidden surprise as the appearance of the scope ended the metallic transformation of the weapon.

    "Miraculous¡­", he thought as he rested the tip of the cannon in front of him. He positioned himself in a shooting stance and stabilized himself before focusing his senses on his body, aiming at raising his focus as he waited for information to prepare his shot.

    His eyes glowed as the AI equipped in it was launched as it began processing his surroundings. Hundreds of information were received through his IA every second that passed, coming from the drones they had launched a few seconds before. The two flying drone aimed at the creatures, and helped the team record its movement and monitored him from the sky.

    "Prepare yourself. Ronnie, Michael!", he exclaimed in a low tone but the two soldier received the message through their MechSuits. Thundering shock wave exploded on the back of the vehicle as two glinting flying armored figure surpassed the vehicle as they aimed at stopping the creature.

    The goal of the mission was to send the beast back to main district, or to make it follow them through the sea of factories. And to do that, they needed to position themselves accordingly around the towering creature.

    The more they approached it, the bigger its size turned to be and the louder each of its step resounded through the earth and atmosphere. Tension filled the heart of the two soldiers, but their mind was hellbent on maintaining their duties.

    Ever since this morning, the survivor of the northern army mourned the death of their comrade in arms and their luck had turned against them. Corroding their mind as they couldn''t find any reason other than that to explain their survival.

    The meager amount of skill existing between the soldiers of the northern army didn''t mean anything in front of the ravaging strength of the mutating monsters.

    Ronnie was heavily aware of that, and felt a hole in his being ever since he survived the fight in the morning. The only reason he had accepted to be part of this mission was to seek an answer.

 Chapter 312 - A Familiar Renewal Part Three

    After that event, he found himself obliged to seek truth in the middle of the battlefield. And when teams had been formed by the armored force that arrived in the Core, he had been one of the first to engage himself.

    To the past member of the police assault team, his body turned restless the moment he found nothing to do, especially when that habit was aggravated due to his current state of mind.

    He made the engine of his MechSuit screamed to the top of their lung, and his shining figure glinted to the sky as a vast trail of glinting energy was left behind him. The other MechSuits followed shortly after his flight, one left and one right as they both tried to circle around the towering creature.

    Their figure disappeared among the factories beside the highway, where the jeep shaped vehicle advanced. Inside of Leov''s scope, the towering scarlet creature grew bigger in his size as its flaming fur glinted in the distance. He directed his aim as he waited for the best moment to act. His shot wouldn''t be executed with the intent to kill, but to assist.

    "MP.R, when will you make contact with the unit?", Leove exclaimed calmly as he coordinated himself with the flying Ronnie.

    "We will be in positions in less than twenty seconds."

    He received the answer shortly after his question and began gazing at the feedback given to him by his AI. His surroundings were clear, and the type of weapon in his hand wasn''t the kind to be bothered by the wind trajectory or friction with the air. He only needed to aim his shot to assist the two pilots to the best of his capacities.

    Nonetheless, that didn''t mean that his job wasn''t important as it could be said that the life of his comrade laid in the grasp of his hand. Whether the towering creature would tunnel vision on the two MechSuit or be controlled by their tempered attack depended on him.

    Time ticked quietly as their preparation ended smoothly. Each second that passed made the incoming confrontation loom in the heart of the soldiers, and before long, the two armored combatants and the jeep shaped vehicle prepared the launch of their coordinated attack.

    But before that even happened, Leove felt a gaze land on him as a horrifying sensation of being watched spread through his body. This wasn''t the first time he felt this instinctual feeling, but that didn''t lessen his panic as that sensation always came with a bullet streaking in his direction. Just as he prepared himself to alert the ready-to-fight MechSuits, he heard a silent whisper in the back of his ears.

    Cease your attack.

    The voice was hollow and seemed to have traveled with the wind from a faraway land, but that whisper drilled through his ear and entered his brain, causing him to jitter out of his aiming form.

    Leove turned around him in panic, and the surroundings of the advancing vehicle, but it was to no avail as his AI didn''t sense any life form nearby.

    "Do not engage!", he ordered swiftly as he felt dread in his heart. The only reason the squad leader had managed to not lose his calm was due to the fact that he didn''t sense any negative intent in that voice. Only a simple order that asked him to stop the operation. "I repeat, stay on standby, and do not engage under any occasion."

    The other member of the squad gazed at him with puzzlement in their glances, and only the driver didn''t seem to care about the change of event as the woman in front of the wheel focused on her task.

    Nonetheless, the two MechSuit users listened to his order as they repositioned themselves. They didn''t leave the sea of factories but continued flying through them with lessened speed as they neither abandoned their positions nor did they drift of their initial path.

    Leove''s tilted his head slightly to the right as he nearly glued his eye on the scope of his weapon. The towering creature entered his sight. He connected his sight to the AI as he began zooming his view thanks to the influence of the bio-technological chip. His face turned white the moment his eyes landed on the head of the towering creature.

    There he saw what appeared like a vague figure under the forced zoom of his war assist AI. The vague figure seemed to be looking at his direction; his eyes, in particular, seemed to be looking directly at him through his scope.

    "Who are you¡­?", he muttered in a shallow tone that oozed of disbelief. His voice had been low, but every member of the squad was connected through their AI, and had thus managed to hear the confusing sentence.

    None of them understood what he meant, as the only thing visible from their position was the towering monster in the distance. Doubt about the sanity of their leader flashed in the minds of the soldiers, but they quickly brushed that possibility off as the man leading them was well known for his sharpness of mind.

    "What is going on, Chief?", asked one of man controlling the two drones but the only thing he received as an answer was the sound made by the friction of the wheel with the asphalt- floored- highway. He opened his lips, in an attempt to once again ask for clarification, but no word left his mouth as he saw Leove get up in a standing position on the advancing vehicle.

    Under their high speed, the wind whipped at the soldier''s face but didn''t manage to force him into shutting his eyes. Nonetheless, they turned into sharp slits that gazed at the distance. Leove waited patiently as the jeep advanced; time ticked, but he didn''t give any order during the rest of their advance.

    The only thing he said was a simple ''stop'' toward the driver that immediately executed himself. The towering monstrosity was less than a kilometer from their position, and the two armored soldiers could be seen flying nearby the standing still vehicle.

    A shadow flashed out of the vehicle as Leove skillfully passed over the opened top of the vehicle. He walked dozens of meters forward before coming to a stop. Calmness could be seen from his relaxed state, but the hand clenched around his weapon had turned white from the strength it exerted.

    Strangely, none of the soldiers in his team questioned his action. A few tried, but the moment they did, they saw the towering creature stop in the distance. After that, their eyes opened widely as they clearly saw a black dot rapidly approach their position from the sky.

    The dot fell on the ground, and the next moment, a black haired youth was standing in front of Leove.

    "What the h*ll?", roared one of them as he jumped out of his seat due to the release of his acc.u.mulated stress.

    "When?", mumbled one man who was controlling a drone. He couldn''t understand how the figure standing across Leove had managed to move this fast, all along bypassing the detection of their drones.

    Every pair of eyes was glued on the black haired man, and only after a few seconds did those same eyes shift from the young man to the humongous beast standing dozens of meters behind him.

    "He was using the creature as a mount to travel!?", that thought appeared at the same time in the mind of the soldiers.

    Their shocked mind caused their tongue to roll in the back of their mouth, and the next few moments that passed were spent in utter silence as they even lowered their breathing in front of the black haired stranger.

    "Who are you?", asked Leove as he found the man''s figure particularly familiar. He felt as though he had already seen the youth behind, and that caused the squad leader to feel a grating sensation in his head.

    Fell''s lips moved as he was going to open them to answer the man, but he stopped midway as he didn''t know how to answer Leove. That silence caused Leove to turn even more restless, and a few of the soldiers even thought that the situation was going to shift to a dangerous one due to the lack of reaction.

    But their heart calmed down the moment the youth spoke. It was a youthful voice that seemed to contain power and vitality, but also gave them the impression to be lacking something, and that thing wasn''t something they could precisely pinpoint. The only thing that came to their mind when they heard his voice was that it was captivating yet emotionless.

    "I''m just a citizen from the Core.", he mumbled softly as his eyes glowed with a confusing glow. It was as though the youth was falling in the reminiscence about the memories he knew, but didn''t seem to be able to find them in his mind.

 Chapter 313 - A Familiar Renewal Part Four

    As soon as they laid their eyes on Fell''s eyes, the soldiers felt a thug in their heart as they felt as though their mind was absorbing the internal conflict face by the black haired man.

    His calm demeanor only accentuated the strangeness of mounting one of the creatures that had raged destruction in their streets.

    Ronnie had been flying over the nearby factories. Waiting for a good opportunity with the other MechSuit, but the conversation that entered his ears caused a jitter to course through his body. The voice of the mysterious individual, in particular, caused his eyes to turn muddy as the past police officer felt memories of his past resurface.

    Without being ordered, his mind forced his body to gradually advance toward the position where his leader and the unknown man were speaking. And before long, the view of the highway once again entered his sight.

    Under his helmet, Ronnie''s facial expression changed as he stared at the man standing in front of Leove. The youthful face and the long black hair made numerous of his memory resurfaced.

    Memories that could be traced back to their current location, the Factory District.

    "You¡­?!", he muttered in shock as he landed next to Leove. The leader of soldier''s squad looked at him in surprise; the look in his eyes urged the armored soldier to explain himself.

    Psssht!

    The sound of depressurizing hummed silently in the void highway, and when Ronnie''s sight landed on Fell, he noticed that the young man was also staring at him. A puzzled gaze marked his face, one that obviously showed the effort the youth was putting in trying to remember him.

    Ronnie''s face changed from surprise to anger, especially when he saw the towering creature behaving quietly in the distance. And that strange scene caused the tired Ronnie to feel as though his emotions were boiling inside of his body.

    The squad leader''s lips opened slightly, he didn''t know if he should let Ronnie speak when he noticed the emotion flashing in his face. But his instinct told that the- now- known stranger was interested in what Ronnie was going to say as much as they wanted to know it too.

    "Where have you been!?", the young soldier roared at the top of his lung; Causing the rest of his squad to blank from surprise.

    "Where were you when we were defending the city?", he added with his eyes acquiring a red tinge due to his emotional disturbance.

    Miserable expression flashed on the face of the individual part of the armed force, and caused the fresh painful memory of the doomed main district resurfaced in the pond of their memories.

    The same memory they had tried their best on ignoring and moving on had been kindled by Ronnie''s word, causing deadly silence that basked the highway in a gloomy atmosphere.

    Ronnie have buckled and sheltered the emotion he had amassed due to today''s long and painful experience. And under seeing Fell''s sight, it was as though he found a leeway to releasing his pent up stress.

    Seeing that Fell wasn''t responding, and was only looking at him with a strange cloudy gaze, the soldier didn''t stop and continued adding layer of his fresh bitterness.

    "Why did you disappear the moment the city needed you the most?", his voice turned rough at the end, and his eyes had reddened to the point where his gaze could light a candle. Then, it died down, as Ronnie''s rage ended after a short outburst as though the mortal soldier had remembered that some event couldn''t be stopped by a single individual.

    "You are strong¡­ And I don''t know why, but I feel as though you''re even stronger than before¡­", he added as his head dropped low. Ronnie''s eyes were locked on the gray asphalt paving the highway, and he fell silent for a short amount of time before adding in a near silent voice. "Sadly, it isn''t the same for all of us¡­", he muttered before backing away.

    Metallic parts of his MechSuit dropped on the ground with a thud, as the young soldier unequipped his armor near the vehicle before entering it. Fell saw the scene unravel in front of him without letting a word out of his slightly opened lips.

    A painful sigh escaped his throat, as he felt himself even more out of place than before. He tried responding to the pain apparent in the man''s words, but found nothing to say as he was clearly knowledgeable enough to know that a ''sorry'' wouldn''t change what had already happened.

    Blood had already been spilled on the steely ground of their city, and that truth would stay unchanged for the rest of their life. Cultivator were godly entities, but sadly, none of them was capable of changing the past as time only flowed in one direction. That rule was the only rule that couldn''t be broken, as it represented the highest pinnacle of strength in the universe.

    But that fact was unknown to the majority of cultivator, except for the one standing in the peak of their cultivation path. And even to them, reverting time to the past was an obscure legend they only heard from their ancestors.

    Thankfully, and sadly, that legend wasn''t known by the citizens of New Casablanca, making it easier for them to accept the harsh reality that jostled their life out of its past tranquility.

    Leove''s mind worked at lightning speed, trying to piece the information he had received from Ronnie''s word. His gaze landed on the silent black haired cultivator, and it suddenly clicked in his mind as though everything was logical.

    "You''re the one¡­", Leove muttered in a soft voice that entered the young cultivator''s ear with ease.

    Fell turned toward, interested by the words that just escaped the soldier''s lips. His eyes glowed as he clearly expressed his desire to know the end of that sentence, and that expression didn''t leave Leove''s experimented eyes.

    "It looks like something happened to you¡­", Leove exclaimed while looking straight at Fell''s eyes. "You''re that guys, Fell. That cultivator that shared with us the incoming danger of the army of beast¡­", he ended in one go before breaking sight with him as he couldn''t afford to continue looking straight at the black haired man.

    It was as though the current situation represented too much excitement to Fell''s soul, causing minute part of his power to spill out of his Soul Palace and escape his control. Impacting the senses of the individual that happened to meet his gaze during that time.

    A few seconds passed as Fell seemed to be physically having trouble to remember his past. The event Leove and Ronnie had spoke about seemed to have come from the realm of fantasy, but everything he had seen since his awakening caused him to trust their word as being real.

    A harsh truth that made the cultivator feel even more down, especially when he saw how uncaring he actually was in front of the many death. Part of his soul wept about the numerous death he had inadvertently caused due to his own death, but his being and ego were unfazed by them.

    "Sir Cultivator.", exclaimed Leove as he noticed that the man in front of him had fallen silent for a long period of time. "We''re going back to the Core. Didn''t you say it was your home town?", he added with a smile that didn''t hide the interest he had for the man. "Why not make the rest of the travel with us?", his body moved to the side as one his arm showed the vehicle behind him in an inviting way.

    Fell nodded mindlessly, causing Leove''s eyes to lit up.

    In times like these, getting to know a strong individual could be the decisive force in surviving the incoming hurdle or staying alive. Who knows, he might even acquire a martial technique or two if he managed to befriend him around a cheerful drink.

    But what happened next caused a wry smile to appear in the face of the calculative Leove.

    Fell turned around, and began slowly making his way toward the towering creature.

    He acted as if he hadn''t understood Leove''s gesture, but in reality, his action were just a way to distance himself from them. He had sensed the mixed feeling every soldier had toward him.

    Strength came with many privilege, but sadly caused even more expectancy from the other. He felt as though his absence from the battlefield had turned into a lack of responsibility, one that made him want to distance himself from them even more.

    And to top it off, that conversation had made the cultivator strangely tired.

    Not physically, nor from any of his source of strength, but mentally and emotionally due to having known more about his past relations.

    "What a pain¡­", Fell mumbled while gazing at the grey sky covering the endless sea of factory. Behind him, the vehicle had already resumed its journey, albeit slower as it seem Leove had made it so they wouldn''t distance themselves too much from the towering creature.

 Chapter 314 - A Familiar Renewal Part Five

    After that, Fell mindlessly made his way to the top of the towering creature before standing on the soft fur covering its skull. He sat cross-legged next to Akainmhar''s unconscious body before patting the red fur covering it.

    The loud and heavy steps resumed as the creature began following the vehicle with unexpected agility. Its size didn''t bother it as it had no difficulty following the squad of soldiers.

    Soldiers that didn''t stay unfazed in front of the strange scene. And without Fell''s close presence, he had enough time for the rest of the journey to reassess and analyze the short, confusing conversation that happened.

    Low mumble and mutter softly spread inside of the advancing vehicle, but Leove didn''t do anything to stop them as his mind was filled with complex thought about the situation their city was in.

    "Is he truly that strong?", asked one of the man that controlled the drones. His hands fiddled with the sharps wings of the drone he had recovered earlier, a clear sign that the event had left him restless.

    Leove looked at the man before turning behind, and pointed to the towering beast. "The answer is laid right in front of your eyes.", he added before continuing. "Do you think we can even scratch that creature? Look at its thick fur, and otherworldly body."

    "Let alone take it down, do you think we can outdistance it with this vehicle?", he ended. Clearly expressing that the mission they had been given was ended shortly due to Fell''s presence. "In front of him, that furred Godzilla is behaving in the same way a dog would in front of its master."

    The man''s hand stopped fiddling with the drone, and his face turned white as he felt that fate had made him dodge a critical bullet. But nonetheless, his eyes continued looking at the dangerous creature with curiosity.

    He only stopped looking when the gigantic eyeball jerked, and gazed at the direction of the car as though it was looking directly at him.

    "Scary¡­", he muttered as he thanked unknown gods that Fell had taken control of such strong creature. "Isn''t it going to escape his control?", he added as his mind had turned blank when the orange colored pupil had lighted his mind in fire.

    Leove laughed dryly, as he too had thought about such an event, but hadn''t dared asked the young cultivator himself.

    Sadly, in the ears of the scared man, that dry laugh was everything but an answer that gave him some sense of security.

    The rest of the journey was spent with the strange setup. An original convoy of the squad''s vehicle followed by the towering creature Fell mounted traversed the rest of the highway without facing any hurdle.

    Ronnie closed his eyes the moment he regained his seat in the vehicle, and closed his eyes the moment his body landed on the leathery surface. He seemingly fell asleep as soon as he shut his eyes, with the other soldier following shortly behind him after looking outside of a few minutes. It was unknown to the rest if the two were tired due to the upgraded MechSuits, or simply because they had faced far too many events during the day.

    Time passed quietly as the strange group made its way to the entrance of the Core. And before long, a dense and compacted steel jungle entered his eyes from the distances. Covering it was darks billowing clouds of dust and toxic waste that danced and warped in the same way small snakes would entangle themselves in packs.

    "This is the Core¡­", he muttered softly from the top of his red mount. "Looks like I didn''t come from the brightest world.", he commented briskly with a wry smile before gazing at the shantytown with a discerning gaze.

    "Looks like the inhabitant of the main district have been evacuated here.", he mumbled as he felt that the town was far too little compared to the population of New Casablanca. "Won''t it be too cramped here?", he added before feeling the stupidity of his thought.

    Cramped or not, no one would care about that where your street were being flooded with dangerous creatures the size of a building. Nonetheless, those comments didn''t undermine the long interest he had cultivated about his home town. And in fact, it was even the contrary as he couldn''t understand how someone of his current strength had appeared from such depraved land.

    His eyes moved from the spectacular shantytown in the distance, and landed on the unconscious body of the red haired man next to him. His eyes glowed, showing that he was in deep thought, and his mind worked as he tried remembering Akainmhar''s word when they first met after his awakening.

    "Sifiso¡­", he mumbled the name of the individual he needed to meet. His only clue as to who he really was surfaced in his thought as he prepared himself for the future research he would do in the Core. "Looks like I won''t have many trouble searching him in this small area.", he added.

    The small area he spoke about was the dense and compact jungle of steel sheet that formed the Core. Strictly speaking, the area wasn''t small, and could even be said to be the size of a city in itself. But when put in comparison to the humongous size of the main district, and the even bigger lands of the factory district.

    Its size couldn''t be seen as anything but ridiculously crooked and small. A far cry from the streets of the main district that entered his eyes when he crossed the energy shield surrounding the city-state.

    The beast under him came to a stop after another minute of travel, and stood dozens of meters behind of the small vehicle that came to a stop. Fell''s keen gaze landed on a man that had descended from the vehicle.

    Seeing that it was Leove, Fell rose to his feet and stepped once before appearing next to the squad leader without producing any sound. In the eye of the experimented soldier, Fell''s figure seemed to have entered an invisible spatial portal that made him appear right next to him.

    "Incredible¡­", Leove thought in his mind as he tried hiding the surprise induced by the soundless movement technique before exclaiming in a polite tone. "We have arrived, Sir."

    Fell nodded as he understood the underlying meaning of the squad leader. He turned around, and stepped once, appearing on the head of the creature with the help of his incredulous movement technique. He crouched, and recovered Akainmhar''s body before jumping toward the vehicle.

    His movement appeared to be instantaneous. Even without the execution of his spatial step, none of the soldiers was capable enough to track the shadow left by his figure when he moved.

    Leove''s eyes opened widely as he noticed the individual at the end of Fell''s hand. He recognized the flaming patch of red hair, and was pleasantly surprised to see the same figure that had raged war with them- outside of the city- during the past three days.

    "Is he injured?", asked Leove as he knew how much of an otherworldly phenomenon the red haired man was. Thankfully, the answer he received from Fell caused him to confirm that such individuals couldn''t be taken down with usual means.

    "Just spent up. Albeit a bit too much¡­", Fell added before turning his neck to the side. Fell''s sight landed on the immobile towering creature that was watching his strong master interact with his food.

    "You can go play around.", he briskly spoke before adding. "Kill anything that resemble me, or them.", he added while pointing the individuals in the vehicle before continuing. "And I won''t hesitate to turn you into nutritious paste."

    His threat worked instantly as the towering creature understood every nuance of his words. A red massive shadow flashed in front of their eyes before disappearing through the sea of factories.

    "Truly the same as a dog¡­", muttered an incredulous Leove that found it troublesome to hide his surprise. "Let us go, Sir.", he added while inviting the young cultivator to follow them inside of the car.

    "You''re method are truly unknown.", he added while leaving his seat to Fell. He waited for the young cultivator to sit down, before doing the same on the seat that faced Fell.

    "Nothing special.", responded Fell that didn''t find the feat particularly impressive. He had seen how Thol''Yr had managed to turn the entire army of creatures into a working set of meridians.

    His realm of existence, and his point of view on the world had drastically changed with his awakening. His entire set of memory was lost in that event, but his soul could now connect with the universal laws with ease, and the only thing that seemed to have downgraded due to that was his knowledge about his past.

    Externally and internally, Fell was no longer the same person. But the karma he has sown didn''t make it possible for him to brush his obscure past.

 Chapter 315 - City Under The City Part One

    After releasing the beast he had used as a mount, and letting it roam freely through the Factory District. Fell made the rest of the travel to the Core inside of the soldier''s vehicle.

    The last-minute of travel through the narrow ups and down that led to the Core was spent in utter silence. The only sound entering their ears was the slightly grating-yet pleasurable- noise released by the friction of the wheel on the degraded asphalt.

    And as they arrived closer to the Core, that grating sound was accentuated due to the further degradation of the road. Thankfully, most of the vehicles taken during the exodus to the Core had been the kind that could be driven on any type of path without any difficulty.

    In fact, the jeep they hoarded might look simple, but was built with technology that made it possible for it to run smoothly on any surface. The only downgrade to that speck was the grating noise released during the friction.

    During that time, Fell continued looking at the first sign of the jungle construct that represented the entrance to the Core. Leove noticed the peculiar attention he was paying to their surrounding, and felt that something was of.

    "Didn''t the cultivator clearly express that he originated from the shantytown named the Core?"

    That question appeared in his mind the moment he saw Fell''s gaze placated on the transparent grey window on his left. But was kept in his mind, as he truly didn''t want to put the strong individual in an odd situation due to his question.

    He could sense that Fell had been honest, and hadn''t lied during their interaction. The reason that pushed Leove to that certitude wasn''t due to any special social skill, but simply resulted from the logical fact that such a strong individual wouldn''t need to lie to them.

    His capabilities were such that it would have been possible for Fell to take down the entire squad of soldiers in less than a few seconds. Leove had seen his movement method, and was sure that to him, attacks coming from a distance meant nothing as he could quickly cross any distance.

    "With his strength, he could have easily brute-forced himself through our small group. He definitely isn''t an enemy, and Ronnie''s reaction had proofed that fact."

    Leove''s puzzlement continued for the rest of the travel as he noticed that Fell wasn''t open to discussion after they entered the last part of the journey that led to the Core. And the rest of the squad seemed to have basked in the cultivation''s mood as though he had corrupted the atmosphere.

    Utter silence spread as Fell looked at the first building of the Core. Buildings made with simplicity, old technology, and decrepit material entered his eyes. A rough smell that seemed to originated from the cement itself basked the shantytown in a rough smell that desensitized the nostrils of anyone that smelled it.

    Fell''s first impression of the city was that it was old. Architectural styles that could be traced back to the cities- dozens of century before- came to his eyes, and with them appeared the most notable point of the shantytown, the diversity of the constructs.

    It was as though the long existence of the shantytown had made it necessary for the citizen of the Core to constantly repair the defiance of the old constructs. Giving births to many oddities that oozed of the creativity of the citizen.

    "What a strange picture¡­", he mumbled as he couldn''t understand why two drastically different towns could exist inside of the same city-state.

    "What caused the appearance of such disparity?", he muttered as he knew that the individual of the Core didn''t look any different from the people of the main district.

    He didn''t even need his memory to be sure about that, as he was a perfect example of that. He, himself, was an individual born in the shantytown named the Core, and had never found that he physically looked any different than the rest.

    The vehicle came to a stop, and with it Fell''s thought about the disparity in New Casablanca. The urgency of the situation made it such that he didn''t care too much about the schism that might have taken place hundreds of years before.

    To the Fell that had lost his memory, life seemed to have started less than twenty hours before the current event. And everything had happened quickly to the point where he hadn''t been given time to think about the situation.

    His knowledge about the balance of power in the city lacked substance to the point where he had only met the armed forces.

    Seeing that Leove had risen from the leather set of the vehicle. Fell and the other followed him out of it as they appeared in a narrow street that finished in a dead end. In front of them, several other vehicles seemed to have been placed in line through the narrow street, as though it had been turned into a parking lot by the authorities of the city.

    "Here, Sir.", exclaimed Leove as he showed the way to the young cultivation.

    Hesitation flashed on Fell''s face for a split second- Leove didn''t have the time to notice it- before he decided that it wouldn''t be bad to meet the higher up of the armed forces.

    Although he was impatient to know more about himself, he was aware that it would be preferable to meet the authorities in place before taking care of his own business. In the end, the situation in the city-state of New Casablanca oozed of bitter urgency, and needed to be taken care of before he could move on. A half mashed responsibility that the young cultivator didn''t feel like dropping. Especially after having failed the attempt at controlling the Bestial Formation.

    Fell silently nodded as he stepped forward, and began following Leove through the narrow path that led out of the improvised parking lot. The rest of the squad followed them quietly, carrying in their arms boxes and cases that seemed to contain weaponry and ammunition.

    During that time, Fell felt a gaze lingering on his back. One that could only be produced when one used the corner of his sight to gaze at someone through his peripheral vision.

    Nonetheless, the young cultivator didn''t do anything to stop that as he could sense that hidden among those gazes was Ronnie. The young soldier seemed to have calmed down after his interaction with Fell, and behind his unfazed face, shame seemed to have tainted his face slightly red.

    Thankfully for him, Ronnie wasn''t the type of individual who couldn''t hold a hard face, and thus didn''t betray the shame he was feeling deep down.

    The small group of individual traversed several narrow paths before entering a building that stood in a random corner. The building in question was old, and decrepit, and was in an even worst condition than the rest of the constructs in the Core. Yet, the moment they entered it, Fell picked up a very soft whisper coming from under his leg.

    As though it was escaping from the fine pores existing in the cemented floor.

    Leove caught on Fell''s gaze, and couldn''t help but have his eye flash with surprise. He immediately noted in his mind that the young man''s senses didn''t lack anything compared to his speed.

    "A well-rounded individual¡­", he muttered softly as he continued leading the way. After entering the decrepit building, the small group moved took the stair that led to the bas.e.m.e.nts, and before long, stopped in front of a metallic door.

    Fell''s eyes opened the moment he caught on the door, as he felt that behind the steel blockade were hundreds upon hundreds of weak blood essence signals. "Living under the Earth¡­", he silently exclaimed in his mind.

    A small blink minutely flashed in the center of the mettalic door, and the next moment, a sliding- grating- acute noise reverberated through the small bas.e.m.e.nt before extending to the rest of the building in a silent burp caused by the vibration.

    When the annoying sound stopped, Fell found himself looking through an opened path. And before long, he found himself once again walking through long and narrow paths that led what seemed to be a vast terrain.

    The long surface seemed to be the size of dozens of football stadiums. And contrary to what one might expect in such places, life was bustling here with a raging vigor as the noises released by the hundreds of humans here formed a reverberating beehive.

    Leove turned toward Fell, and opened his arm wide as he put the large space in emphasis with his body language before adding.

    "Welcome to the camp Delta.3!", he exclaimed with anticipation as though he was the one that was discovering the odd place.

    Fell nodded with a slight smile at the warm invitation, and followed him inside.

    Having to hide underground wasn''t anything glorious, but War was rarely about glory and victory, and more about bitter ingenuity to achieve survival.

 Chapter 316 - City Under The City Part Two

    A deep grating noise akin to metallic chains pulling heavy weights spread through the bas.e.m.e.nt, and the next moment, a large tunnel opened up in front of the eyes of the small group.

    Fell followed Leove through the long tunnel, their steps resounded through the thin and narrow path and led them to a small room.

    As soon as he appeared in the larger space, he was forced to stop due to Leove standing right in front of him. But his acute senses could pick up sign of life forms facing their direction.

    The two men standing in front of the small squad recognized the group, but nonetheless approached them in a way to identify their numbers.

    Their hands didn''t hold weapons, but scanners that were explicitly meant to record the signature of an individual.

    Their job wasn''t specifically to protect the entrance, but served as a mean of identifying every entrant. A clear sign that the armed forces were taking the situation very seriously.

    The appearance of the central district''s citizen in the Core, lead by the armed forces and the authorities of the city, caused the already unstable shantytown to nearly spill out in toxic fumes.

    War and politics rarely went in different paths, and the situation in New Casablanca was far from being a particular case.

    As soon as the mass exodus arrived in their shantytown, the citizen of the Core found themselves overwhelmed by the orders coming from the authorities.

    Trouble soon began brewing in the shantytown, as human continued being human, even in the face of the deadly crisis following their steps.

    Thankfully, there existed the armed forces, composed of individuals coming from every kind of social group in New Casablanca.

    The cohesion built through the constant fight against the beasts, and their sole purpose of defeating the monstrosities ravaging their land caused them to take hold of the power in the city.

    A fast flip of power balance was executed by the armed forces, as the higher-ups in the government that weren''t part of the armed forces found themselves reduced to simple citizens.

    The change of power caused significant changes, in a minimal amount of time, as the armed forces that had faced the creatures in the city found themselves obliged to act.

    As they couldn''t afford to loose the comrade-in-arm that originated from the shantytown. The citizens of the Core were taken with particular care by the armed forces, as they asked them kindly to accommodate the civilian in the safest area of the city.

    The armed forces dispatched themselves in several small group that covered the shantytown, using something that only a few people knew about the city.

    Under the dense jungle of steel known as the Core, existed an entire set of interconnected underground tunnel that used to form the sewer system of the city.

    With the passing time, and the advancement of technology, the entire sewer system ended up unused for generations and generations.

    It was only to this very day that the door that led to those tunnel were opened. Obviously, all of that happened before the massive exodus that occurred during the creation of the main district.

    The door in question that Fell had passed through was a remnant of numerous passageways left by the company that used to manage the sewers.

    "It''s us.", exclaimed Leove as he raised a badge he was clenching with his left hand before adding. "We have just made our way from the mission we have been given."

    One of the soldiers guarding the door nodded at Leove, as he scrunched his eyes and scrutinized the metallic badge before turning his sight away from Leove. And back to the individuals standing behind him.

    "I can see that you''ve got another member in your squad.", he exclaimed as he scrutinized the stranger with an intense gaze. Sadly for him, no reaction appeared on the face of Fell as he simply stood while looking deeply at the man.

    Curiosity appeared in his eyes as he couldn''t understand why such actions were necessary when the Bestial Formation was progressing with every minute that passed. But, the young cultivator didn''t do anything as he didn''t want to cause unnecessary that would end up delaying him even more.

    "Sir is part of the armed forces.", exclaimed Leove in a bright flash of intelligence. "Not properly¡­", he added silently in his mind.

    The guard nodded slightly as he turned to his comrade, that nodded to him in return.

    The young man did seem to be well built, and was even clearly wearing an armored martial suit that made him resemble a dashing noble of the main district.

    The scanner in the man''s hand moved as he swiped it in front of Fell. A second passed as the man reenacted his swipe once again before stopping in place for a few seconds.

    An odd expression appeared on his face as he walked to the other guard, asking him to scan the youth in a tired tone.

    He rubbed his eyes with evident fatigue before looking at the unfurling scene that happens in front of his eyes.

    His college mimicked him, and tried executing a scan on Fell''s body. Sadly, it was to no avail as the eyes of the two guards changed.

    They looked oddly at the youth, as the current situation was one they never had to deal with, and even began approaching the weapon hanging around their belts.

    "Calm down, fellow brothers. I don''t advice you to do that. Look, go take some rest, I''ll take care of this one for the both of you.", he added before turning toward Fell.

    "This Sir is a native from the Core, and the reason you can''t scan him is that he is simply an advanced cultivator!", his last sentence, in particular, cause a change in the facial expression of the two.

    "Our scanners are simply too lacking for an individual with such potency.", he explicated calmly.

    The guard''s mouth dropped low, as a regretful expression appeared in their eyes, and before long.

    They simply stepped aside from the groups'' path, all along while looking at Leove with a gaze that screamed¡ª¡ª¡ª Why didn''t you say it before?

    Leove patted the shoulder of the man that spoke the most before expressing his thanks to them, and departed with the small group inside of the long tunnel.

    "They have tightened the security.", explained Leove with a pained expression that showed he was sorry for the time lost due to the small event.

    Fell nodded in an uncaring way, before continuing through his path. The reason he had followed Leove was straightforward, and had been because he wanted to share what he knew to the higher-ups of the armed forces.

    Fighting the deadly Bestial Formation was akin to trying to stop a tsunami wave that would reform more energetic every time you broke it.

    He didn''t know the exact plan of the armed forces, but was hell bent on making sure they wouldn''t drop a rock on their feet.

    A simple precaution that would avoid him numerous trouble, while only costing him a small amount of time.

    The idea had appeared in his mind as soon as he had met Leove''s group in the highway, and Leove''s proposal had ended up making him choose that option.

    It was unknown if the young cultivator had been influenced by Ronnie''s outbreak, or had simply chosen the logical decision of increasing the knowledge of the armed forces.

    Their steps resonated through the narrow tunnel, and before long, they made their way to second room similar to the outpost they met before. Only this one was void of any soul, and led to four different paths. On a wall to their right, could be seen the entire map of the underground tunnel network.

    "From here we will separate.", exclaimed Leove as he turned toward his squad. "I will help, Sir, meet the leaders of the armed forces, while you go back in our barracks."

    Short goodbyes'' left the mouths of the squad member before the small group turned into two. Ronnie and the soldier''s squad left the small room by taking the path on the foremost left, while Fell followed Leove through the completely opposite door.

    After only a few seconds of slow walk, Fell''s eyes caught on a change in the light coming from the end of the path as he knew that the area with short tunnels was soon coming to an end.

    During the small amount of time the squad had stayed in the small room, he had already memorized the map they had taken as a cultivator''s spatial perception could only be good.

    "From here, we will take vehicles.", exclaimed Leove as a vast dried expanse entered their eyes when they left the tunnel.

    Fell''s eyes spread in the distance as a strange odor entered his nose. Leove noticed that, and as he approached a small vehicle sitting near the small aperture, they came from.

    "Not the best smell, but you get used to it quickly."

 Chapter 317 - City Under The City Part Three

    Fell''s sensitive nose quickly picked up the acre odor ambient in the sewer system of the city. It was as though the smell that had permeated these areas for centuries before; had stayed locked underground and had even fused with every particle of matter existing here.

    Thankfully, he might have found the smell bothering, but not impossible to support.

    Leove hopped on the small vehicle with Fell following shortly behind him. And before long, the pair of individuals were making their way through the sizeable underground road.

    The rest of the journey was spent in utter silence, with both the individual focusing on matters of their own. Nonetheless, Leove was the one who broke the silence first, explaining that they would soon arrive.

    They changed vehicles twice in the journey underground before finally attaining the centermost place of the tunnel''s network.

    As soon as he arrived here, Fell could sense that the number of blood signals had risen to a greater height. He knew that this place was where most of the armed forces were positioned. And could even feel a few individuals that had nearly attained strength equivalent to a first realm cultivator, albeit ones of low ranks.

    Still, that fact was commendable as cultivation methods were far from having spread through every individual of New Casablanca. And most of the newly ascending cultivators were individuals molded by the past three days of war. Their bodies and soul had been cleansed by the constant pressure surrounding them, and their hopes and desire to protect their land pushed them through the final barrier of mortality.

    The pair''s steps resounded through the last tunnel that led to the central place where the majority of the armed forces were positioned. Strangely, there weren''t any guards in their paths, and only a few cameras were left in the open of a few corners.

    After traversing the last area on foot, they arrived to a bustling small town where Fell sensed hundreds of different individuals. They left the last tunnel, and in front of their eyes, appeared a massive plaza shaped space that seemed to extend thousands of meters in the distance.

    The entire area had been cleared of any construct, and had been turned into a vast military barracks where dozens of massive tents and bivouacs serving as the army''s barracks.

    "How much time did it take them to setup all of this?", asked Fell as he knew that the main district''s inhabitant had fled to the Core a few hours ago.

    "If I''m not wrong, the encampment isn''t finished yet, but this giant plaza took less than an hour to be formed.", Leove''s lips opened as he responded swiftly. It could easily be seen in his tones that he held the logistical team in very high respect.

    "There is the most important camp.", he added as he pointed his finger to the first right. "That''s the place from where every command is coming from.", he said before looking to white camps that stood out of the rest. "As for those, they are held by the medical team who are currently focused on healing the injured."

    "That place is where the upgraded MechSuit had been formed. All in all, this are can be considered as the most important place in the Core. From here, every squad of solider can be equipped, and move to a specific area of the town in the least amount of time."

    Fell''s mouth opened slowly as he expressed his surprise through a very short sigh. Leove noticed that the man''s gaze were marked at the leader''s bivouacs, and decided that he should cut his explanations short.

    He silently resumed his steps, as the pair began traversing the area- bustling with life and movement- under the watchful eyes of a few individuals that noticed their presence. Nonetheless, the couple of individuals was only seen passing through the massive-scale encampment, but no one tried blocking their advance as everyone was focusing on their own tasks.

    Before long, Fell stood in front of grey colored tents that seemed capable of holding an entire office. In fact, the bivouac was made with such durable material that it had been possible to form a two-floor small construct with it. Putting aside the color, and the length of the construct, even its height was comparably different from the rest.

    Two guards stood in front of the leader''s armed forces general quarter. Leove turned toward Fell, and asked him to wait for a few minutes before advancing toward the pair of guards.

    Leove''s left hand moved as he flashed his badge to the pair of individual standing in front of him. They stepped aside, freeing the way for the squad leader, who disappeared inside of the construct, leaving Fell outside.

    The young cultivator watched the tents for a few seconds before spreading his sense inside of it. As the encampment weren''t made with any unique material, they couldn''t block his preying sense, and before long, the entirety of the leader''s camp appeared in his mind.

    "Oh¡­", he muttered as he followed Leove''s signal through the decent-sized tent. He saw through his keen sense Leove''s figure move from one room to another, then came to a stop as though he was asked to wait a few seconds.

    Time advanced quietly, and before long, Leove was taken to a room filled with dozens of blood signatures. Potent and robust blood signals could be sensed in that room, with more than half of them being equivalent to first realm cultivator. A strength sufficient to create awe and respect from their comrade of the armed forces, but far too lacking in front of the army of creatures.

    Leove spoke for a few seconds to the large assemble soldiers before making his way toward Fell''s location. And before long, Fell found himself entering the inside of the tent he had been monitoring from the outside.

    He followed Leove through a set of steel-made staircases that led to the bas.e.m.e.nts'' second floor, and before long, the young cultivator found himself facing the door leading to the room where the leaders were assembled. Leove didn''t speak any word to Fell, and simply stood to the side of the door with one of his hand showing Fell the way.

    "We might not see each other again, Sir.", exclaimed Leove as he waved his hand in a goodbye before leaving the massive tent.

    Fell returned the gesture, and didn''t wait any longer before entering the room where the assemble of leaders was waiting for him. He could sense that they were waiting for him, as he wasn''t explicitly hiding his strength, he probably appeared grandly in the radars of their minds.

    After stepping through the door, he felt dozens of sight lock on his body, and the next moment the origins of these sights entered his vision. His eyes moved around the room, checking the individuals sitting in front of him.

    "Too lacking¡­", he sighed as he had expected too much from the armed forces of New Casablanca. The first earthling he had met when awakening had been Akainmhar, and the fact was that the red haired man was one of the strongest entities existing in the city.

    Subconsciously, Fell had overestimated the individual power of each earthling. "This is going to be troublesome¡­", he muttered as he noticed strange smiles appearing on the face of the individual.

    A man coughed, gathering the attention of everyone in a subtle manner, as he started the venue with an introduction.

    "Good to see you again, venerable hero.", he exclaimed in a matter of fact tone. Fell''s gaze locked on the man, before moving to several other individuals that had a change of expression when the man spoke.

    "It''s him¡­", a soft whisper didn''t escape the young cultivator''s keen hearing sense.

    Fell nodded toward him. His mind worked at lightning speed as he caught on the fact that he was a well-known person through the armed force, and he stepped forward.

    "Good to see that you guys are still alive.", Fell exclaimed swiftly in a familiar tone. One that seemed forced, as it still contained a cold and detached tone that couldn''t be hidden. Nonetheless, smiles appeared on the faces of the leaders of the armed forces. Smiles that soon dropped at Fell''s next sentence, turning grim and somber.

    "I am afraid I have come today with terrible news.", he began as a silence dropped in the assemble. Strangely, the young man''s word was left uncontested by the leaders as though this scene had already happened before.

    "The army of creatures had evolved, turning into a grand scale formation that linked every single monster part of it."

    "They transform, and evolve even further with each passing minute. And are dangerously approach a state of instability where they might blow up and the turn the entire city-state into fuming destructed lands."

    "Killing them is useless as their fused essence would be transmitted to another creature, further strengthening and accelerating the last phase of the Formation."

 Chapter 318 - City Under The City Part Four

    "The other news I have with me is a good one during the emergence of the Bestial Formation. Four godly entities had appeared. I can say with 100% certainty that only one of them is still alive."

    A change appeared on the faces of the numerous individuals present in the large room. In their heart, horror and panic had been caused by the godly entities that had appeared behind their walls. Those strong otherworldly cultivators had caused them to feel utter despair the moment they acted.

    "Won''t it come later bite at our back?", asked one of the leaders in a low tone.

    Fell caught the man''s facial expression, and couldn''t help but agree with him. Nonetheless, he hadn''t killed that entity with a very specific purpose, and that was to strike fear in the heart of New Casablanca''s enemies.

    "Maybe.", he responded genuinely and didn''t lie to the individuals that led the armed forces. He had come to learn that the decision making related to survival had pushed the armed forces through a small coup-d''¨¦tat that changed the decisional balance of the city.

    "Although I don''t think he will be troublesome to deal with. If I sense him nearby, I can take care of him before he even approaches the Core.", he added as he gave his word on taking care of that entity. In the end, he was the one who had taken the decision to let it escape, as he had preferred focusing on Thol''Yr.

    It was Fell''s responsibility to make sure the last godly entity wouldn''t come back to bite at their backs. Especially when the armed forces entire focus would be on the deadly monsters of the Bestial Formation.

    Silence spread through the room, as the individuals that led the army began pondering on the new information they had acquired. The excitement induced by the death of the entities had made them temporarily forget the first information given by the young cultivator.

    "How many time can the energy shield buy us?", asked Fell as he felt dampened by the heavy silence that basked the venue.

    Click! Click! Click!

    A young man furiously typed on the keyboard, as though he had been waiting for the moment someone was going to ask that question. A few seconds passed as the number of input he was executing rose in intensity, and before long, he raised his head away from the computer he had and exclaimed softly.

    The youth''s voice didn''t contain any of the might or respect the other individuals in the room had, but instead contained a vigorous naivety that nonetheless didn''t make him fear to speak in front of the large venue of leaders.

    "The energy shields will be dropping in exactly two days.", he exclaimed with a strange tone that made it obvious his nostrils were partially clogged.

    Fell''s hand rose to his chin, and his sight moved to the source of the voice. He fell in deep thought for a few seconds; his fingers rhythmically tapped his jaw as he focused on his mental computation. He had seen the energy shields in close range and had even traversed it using the spatial element dwelling in his soul. He knew that the number given by the youth would only be true if none of the beasts touched the energy shields during the next two days.

    He opened his lips softly, before exclaiming in a voice that showed he was making computation on the spot.

    "That number doesn''t take into account the variable of the creature attacking the shields.", he added swiftly turning around. "My work here is finished, I have matters to attend, and I don''t plan on infringing on the armed forces'' decisions."

    His sentence ended the moment his step left the door of the room, leaving most of the leaders silent after his departure. The news that came with his return was anything but good, but the event had served enormously to the young cultivator who had managed to gather valuable information his own person.

    "Looks like they recognized me¡­", he muttered silently as he left the two-floored bivouac serving as the leaders'' office. "Nothing surprising if I take into account my current strength. What was strange, was that they seemed to deeply trust my words¡­", he added as he fell in deep thought for the rest of the journey.

    His surrounding changed as he left the enormous central hub of the underground network, and began making his way to the entrance of the underground tunnel he had taken. The speed of his journey rose the moment he appeared in the large underground highway where Fell and Leove had taken a vehicle to cross. Only this time, Fell instantly rushed through it in a dashing advance.

    His running speed was such that using vehicles had actually ended up taking more time. The journey that had taken Fell and Leove more than dozens of minutes had ended up being crossed in less than five minutes by the young cultivator.

    After that, he found himself facing the thin tunnel where the two guard had been stationed. His figure turned into a shadowy arrow that silently traversed the path in front of it. His discretion could only be bested by his speed, as the pair of guards only felt a gust of wind brush their back.

    Fell reappeared in front of the bas.e.m.e.nt of the building containing the entrance to the sewer system of the city. As soon as the street of the city entered his sight, a flash of remembrance glinted on his eyes as he had forgotten Akainmhar.

    Thankfully, the red haired man didn''t move from his position as he had stayed sitting unconscious on the back of the squad''s vehicle. After grabbing him, Fell began making his way through the narrow and crooked street of the Core. The labyrinth-like street seemed to have been built without any general logic, as though each citizen had taken part in the construct in a massive sandbox project.

    "Sifiso¡­", Fell muttered the name given by Akainmhar while making his way through the streets.

    Streets that were completely void of any soul, as though the shantytown had been hit by a devastating pandemic that made the citizen choose to stay hidden in their homes. Thankfully, his senses managed to show him the general direction to take, as without it, he would have drifted to the rare unpopulated area of the Core.

    And from one street to another, Fell finally found himself facing a slightly bigger street after following his instincts through the maze like town. Contrary to before, he happened to meet a lonely soul drifting in the middle of the street.

    Fell resumed his step, and approached the man wearing shambled cloth- clothes that could only be called patches of greasy tissues sewn together- as he needed help with finding the individual named Sifiso.

    "Hello, my good friend.", exclaimed Fell in a friendly manner as he tried grabbing the man''s attention.

    The young cultivator didn''t receive any response coming from the poor soul sitting on the ground.

    "Hello? Are you with m¡­", he stopped in the middle of his sentence. Fell''s gaze changed as he could see that something was wrong with the man, his figure flashed as he crossed the small distance separating him from the half-unconscious man.

    Without any hesitation, Fell grabbed the shambled man''s hand but only felt a striking coldness. As though the man was formed out of freezing ice cubes, and the intense shaking coming from him made the young cultivator doubt if the man was actually alive.

    He focused his senses in his eyes as he began looking at the man''s body. "This type of coldness can be only be found in the extremities of his body¡­", he mumbled as he lifted the man''s sleeve. Fell''s pupil turned into a pinpoint nucleus, and the next moment, the shanty man''s body was zoomed, in his sight.

    The shanty man''s body was turned into a grand-scale under Fell''s sight, and only then, did he manage to find the crux of the problem. All over the man''s body, could be seen small dots that represented injections. Fell didn''t know anything about the Core, but the moment he saw the man''s situation, he immediately understood that it was anything but natural.

    "What substance did he inject himself?", thought Fell without finding an answer. His memory loss caused him to forget about the maggot-infested junkies of the Core, as his new self inadvertently happened to meet one the moment he came back to the shantytown. His past self might have ignored him, or at best, left the poor soul some food next to him.

    But the current situation made Fell obliged to help the man, as he was lacking any knowledge of the city and needed someone to help him find Sifiso.

    Fell dropped Akainmhar on the side, and controlled his heaven and earth energy into its most malleable and soft form before injecting it inside of the shantyman through his back.

 Chapter 319 - City Under The City Part Five

    After turning the explosive lightning based heaven and earth energy into a softer version, Fell began one fine thread of energy after another. The moment his energy entered the body of the junkie, the latter began shaking rapidly as though millions of volts were coursing through his flesh.

    The hobo''s dirty body was soon cleaned by the torrents of sweat escaping from his opened up pores. And before long, parts of the drug he had injected straight through his veins began evaporating.

    Fell''s face held a mask of focus, and he knew that a momentary mistake would cause him to lose control of his strong lightning based energy. And if that ended up happening, it wouldn''t surprise him if the shanty man''s body turned into charcoal.

    "I can sense that I cleared up his body of every excessive substance.", he muttered as he retracted his turbulent energy from the man''s flesh. He sighed as he rose to his feet, and waited quietly for the man to wake up.

    He hadn''t only cleared the man''s body, but had also left minutes part of his energy through the shanty man''s body. Before long, he saw signs of twitching on the face of the man.

    The small twitches soon turned into eyes blinks, and the next moment, the shanty man''s clear gaze was looking straight at the youth standing in front of him.

    "Ye''want semethin bruther?", exclaimed the man in a questionable accent. Seeing that Fell wasn''t answering him, he rose to his feet, and was surprised to notice that he was feeling outstanding.

    Usually, after experiencing the long trips that would happen after his usual fix, he would always wake up with an ungodly headache. Saying that he felt as though his head had been swapped with the other extremity of his body wasn''t really an exaggeration. But that wasn''t even the worst, as every time he would awaken from dreamland, he would have to face an incredible desire to buy a ticket and travel straight back to those lands.

    Yet strangely, now he felt as though he had awoken from a long reinvigorating sleep. He hummed a small tune in a quiet- near serene- tone as he felt in an abnormally good mood, and rose to his feet before gazing longly at the youth standing in front of him.

    "Ye don spek?", he asked once again as he gazed at the fair face of the youth standing in front of him. "Ye did sometin to ma bodie?"

    This time, the shantyman received an answer from the youth standing in front of him. Fell nodded silently as he waited for a few second to check if the man''s bodily function were properly working.

    "I did cleanse your body from that substance.", he exclaimed in an explaining tone that caused the shanty man''s eyes to open widely.

    Less than a second passed after he heard it, that the man''s fist was already clenched tightly, ready to send them to the youth who ruined his journey through dreamlands. But, his good mood- and what was left of his survival instinct- stopped him from hurling a fist to his benefactor.

    "Thanks to yer, am feelin exceptional fresh.", he muttered through his broken teeth. "Ye, very much exceptional.", he added in the same way a student would repeat his homework in an attempt to learn it by heart.

    His eyes cleared as he stopped looking at the uneven pavement piled on the floor, and looked at the young man in a watchful gaze. "I sheld thank''ya.", the hobo added in a nod as he reminded himself how social interaction worked outside of dreamland.

    "D''ye need somthin ma bruhta?", his tongue flapped in a lightning fast manner that Fell found difficult to understand.

    But the young cultivator still paid extra attention to the warped words leaving the hobo''s parched lips. He pondered for a few seconds, doubting that such a man would know the whereabouts of Sifiso, but nonetheless still decided to try.

    "I''m looking for a certain individual named Sifiso. All I know about his whereabouts is that he lives in the Core, you can help me with this?", he spoke slowly and took extra attention to articulating each syllable leaving his mouth.

    The shantyman looked deeply at him while hearing his sentence, and before long, gazed deeply at the sky as though he was looking at a reflection of his own thought. Thankfully, today''s sky was particularly void of the constant toxic fumes in the same way the hobo''s mind was particularly swift.

    He stroked his dirtied face in the same way an intellectual would do in front of a mathematical problem. Then, his mouth opened, and one of his hand formed a fist that he slapped on his other hand.

    "Gat''ya. Follow me.", he added as he turned around and began moving without waiting for Fell. He delved deep in the maze like streets of the Core, uncaring of the young man following him as he didn''t try to slow his step.

    Fell was walking in an unhurried manner, while the hobo had nearly darted in a run after turning the first street. It was unknown if he had suddenly wanted to compete in a running competition, or had simply felt that the pinching in his chest had disappeared. Yet strangely, even with Fell walking at a snail pace speed, he never lost track of the speeding hobo.

    He continued following the man quietly, unsure if he truly knew the way, but as it was Fell''s first lead to Sifiso. He could only continue down this path while hoping it would lead to at least another clue.

    Time passed quietly as the pair crossed one crooked alley after another, and before long, Fell sensed the energy he had left in the hobo''s body come to a stop. He accelerated his step, and soon arrived behind the hobo.

    The shantyman was in the midst of pointing with his finger toward a strange construct in the distance. A warped cylindrical building that tilted to the point where it threatened to fall apart at any moment notice.

    "Ye see that?", he exclaimed and coughed before spitting a grey clogged chunk of mucus. "Ge ther, yell find wa''t ye wan''t.", he added before turning around and departed the venue.

    Fell stood in place for a short period of time, before sending his sense inside of the crooked building in the distance. His eyes caught on the tilted sign hanging near the door.

    "Gladiator''s Heaven¡­", he mumbled as his sense delved inside of the construct. His soul power invaded the dense metallic sheet serving as the coliseum''s construct, and before long, his mind had access to its interior.

    During the time his soul had stretched into a mantle that gradually sneaked inside of Gladiator''s Heaven, he connected his mind to his blood essence as he began feeling the numerous individual standing in the distance. The two detection technique mixed together formed a clean radar that wouldn''t miss anything.

    Even the fly whiffing in the air around an old man didn''t escape his soul sense. He continued delving deeper, one individual after another appeared in his sight as he began memorizing the interior of the strange construct. At some point, he sensed a path leading underground and began following him.

    "Where does this lead?", he mumbled surprised as the fact that it was the second construct he entered. Yet, once again, it also happened to be connected to an underground area. "It seems like the underground network is far vaster than I thought¡­", he muttered as he couldn''t help but find a reason to the lack of height in the building of the shantytown.

    A few second seconds passed as he delved deep in the earth, and before long, a vast area entered his mind. Strong emotions, and sensations seemed to have stayed locked in the sand. His soul turned into fine threads that patted the sand, laying on what looked like a large arena.

    Outside of the metallic coliseum, Fell was still standing in the middle of the street- pensive- pondering about the structure of the city. Suddenly, the sand floored arena made him feel strange.

    His eyes turned cloudy as his own soul was tainted by the aura in the underground arena. And before long, the emotions and sensation that were trapped in that arena escaped from the underground by following his stretched soul.

    "What is this¡­", he felt an incredible familiarity with the emotions transmitted to him by his soul. "Why do I feel like I have already come to this place in the past¡­", he muttered as Fell''s undying intent surged out of the purple expanse.

    He retracted his soul sense from underground, and back to his body before stepping forward. A change had taken place in Fell the moment he had sensed the aura delving in the underground arena, making him fall even deeper in reminiscence.

    He thought, and thought, but could only see the void in his past.

 Chapter 320 - Unfurling Past Part One

    After resuming his steps toward the metallic sheeted coliseum, Fell''s unhurried footsteps were rhythmed by the several attempts of remembrance. Sadly, they led to nothing, as every time he tried thinking about his past, it only led him to gaze at a white canvas.

    Nothing came to his mind, but the young cultivator''s heart wasn''t shaken as he didn''t stop his attempt. He could feel that the place that stood in front of him was one that counted heavily to his soul. He couldn''t yet point what was causing him to feel like that toward the strange, unfamiliar construct. But his mind was hellbent on relentless trying to remember.

    "This entrance¡­", he mumbled as he caught sight of the lacking letters in the sign. He stepped through the large door with watchful steps that didn''t miss any detail in the small construct.

    Realistically speaking, the young cultivator had absolutely no certitude nor any hope for his attempt. But something deep in his soul made him yearn what he had lost, and even if he couldn''t remember, he could still try and ask about his past.

    As soon as he entered the coliseum named Gladiator''s Heaven, his eyes caught on the dense line of n.a.k.e.d crooked pillars that served as the main support for the humongous weight of the construct.

    He caught sign of a small fracture in one of those pillars. He swiped his soul sense on that specific pillar, and couldn''t help but come to a stop as he felt remnant of some kind of energy locked in it. His body shook as he felt an enormous familiarity coming from the energy left in that pillar; the familiarity Fell had toward that energy was such that he felt he could actually control that speck of energy.

    "What is this place¡­", he muttered softly as his eyes turned toward the other pillar. Sadly, he didn''t come to face any other peculiarity, and quickly began resuming his steps toward the sole soul sitting in the large room.

    His steps produced small friction with the ground that echoed into an easily listenable sound that propagated through the large construct. Yet even with that, the old man sitting near the wooden reception didn''t seem to notice the new arriving individual.

    It was only when Fell appeared in his sight that the old man''s slow sight turned toward his direction. A minute glow appeared on the old man''s face, as though the man he caught sight of was his own grandson.

    Sifiso rose from his seat as he stood in line in front of the young man facing him. He opened his lips slowly, as he prepared himself to greet the young cultivator, but nothing left his mouth, and even the glow in his eyes diminished.

    What stopped him from opening his lips wasn''t that he recognized something different from Fell, but was caused by the lack of familiarity in the youth''s gaze, forcing him to swallow the word he was going to say.

    He only looked deeply at his eyes, and caught on the confusion in the youth''s soul. It didn''t take long for the experienced Sifiso to understand that something had happened.

    "What happened?", softly whispered Sifiso with trembling vocal cords. The emotions and words he had swallowed before were released through the two words.

    His thought couldn''t stay hidden, and although he had spoken them in a near-silent tone.

    The two simple words resounded like thunder in the middle of a calm night inside of Fell''s mind. They caused his body to twitch and trembled from the emotions hidden in these words. A painful empathy that caused an aching sensation to appear in every inch of Fell''s ego body.

    Sifiso''s eyes turned firm as he saw the struggle happening inside of Fell''s soul. And in the same way, a magnet would attract its polar opposite, the young man''s struggle flooded through the void in his soul before appearing in Sifiso''s face.

    "Poor child¡­", mumbled Sifiso in his mind as he hesitated on stepping forward. He could sense that the Fell standing in front of him couldn''t be compared to the youthful cultivator he had known. The last time he had seen him was less than three days ago, and even then, the youth hadn''t been this solemn.

    His extreme solemn- near-emotionlesss state seemed to hide a tremendous pain that originated from his ego. One that caused him to feel that an important component of his being was lacking.

    "How horrible was the defeat for him to appear in this state¡­", he added as he began preparing cheerful words to ease the young warrior.

    But as soon as his eyes left Fell''s eyes, and descended along the youth''s body, Sifiso''s old body twitched as though thousands of volt had traversed his being. Flooded from the emotions coming from Fell, he had inadvertently missed the other individual that was with him.

    Sounds of footsteps spread through the large reception of the coliseum, and before long, Sifiso appeared next to Fell. He crouched and took Akainmhar''s body from Fell''s dense grip, before moving, putting the immobile and unconscious body on the wooden table laying next to the lone chair.

    "How did it happen?!", the shock and horror that dropped in his heart contagiously spread to his words and facial expression. The keen eyes of a coliseum manager checked the cultivator''s body in a swift second, and didn''t notice any life-threatening external injury.

    His body moved, touching the emaciated body cultivator, trying to look for signs of internal damage, but his search came to a stop soon after it began.

    "He isn''t injured.", the word had escaped the young cultivator''s lips and entered Sifiso''s ear in an undeniable tone.

    After exhaling a lengthy sigh that seemed to age the old man, Sifiso turned his gaze away from the red haired Akainmhar and pressed the dial of a small board sitting in the table. He opened his lips, and asked help from the logistical team behind gladiator''s heaven.

    Before he had the time to turn back toward Fell. The usually silent youth once again opened the dance, and exclaimed his vibrating tone that clearly showed his troubled emotional state.

    "You seem to know me?", as soon as he opened his lips. It was as though a broken dam had opened in his soul with all of his doubts and confusion escaped through.

    "Who am I?", the two questions unraveled the mystery in Sifiso''s mind as he finally understood where the youth''s confusion was coming from.

    Sifiso''s face tensed in a sudden manner, and the experienced manager finally understood that the youth had paid a tremendous price in the past three days. One that made him lose every memory of his past.

    "You are¡­ Fell¡­", the name of the young cultivator dropped in his ear for the first time since his awakening. His eyes opened as he could feel familiarity with the short name that left the old man''s lips.

    "Fell¡­", he repeated mindlessly as though he was inscribing the four letter in the surface of his brain.

    "Surnamed Pluck, a native from the Core and one born out of its worst district¡­ The infamous Baby Cemetery!", the word dropped like an explosive thunder in the mind of the young cultivator.

    Sadly, although he now knew more about his own self, an even worst sensation appeared in his mind. As though an incredible itch was grating the surface of his soul, without him being able to do anything to it. The confusion in mind accentuated as two short words escaped his mouth in a dazed manner.

    "Fell Pluck¡­ Fell Pluck¡­", he repeated dozens of time in a row. As though the pain coming from an unknown past had caused him to feel out of his world. In the same way, a fish would finally found himself living in an unknown pond.

    It was the same for the young native of the Core, who had suddenly found himself forced to defend the walls of a city he no longer knew, forced to accept a past he knew nothing of. All of that was due to the same driving forces that made it possible for him to survive long enough to absorb the Seed of Power.

    The two-edged intent that made him this powerful had also made him hate the current situation deeply to the Core. Adding to that, the self deprecating thoughts that came from being incapable of stopping the Bestial Formation, the young cultivator found himself split between two personalities.

    Fell''s relentless intent that had resisted the destruction of his soul, and the consciousness that had arisen from his new ego body seemed to collide in a paradoxical pugilat that put the youth''s mind in a constant schism.

    "This is who am I?", he exclaimed with a deep questioning. "Where is the Baby Cemetery?", he pondered out loud once again as he tried constructing a mental image of the familiar-sounding place where he was born.

    Sifiso''s eyes glowed as he swiftly grabbed a strange-looking phone from a pocket, and dialed the only number that could deal with the situation Fell was in.

 Chapter 321 - Unfurling Past Part Two

    Sifiso found himself speechless in front of the strong confusion existing in Fell''s word. Those questions from the young cultivator weren''t aimed at Sifiso, but were thoughts spoken out loud and directed at himself.

    The Old Manager had stood on top of the coliseum for numerous years. Facing hundreds of strange cases that made him understand more facets of life, and the one happening in front of him would forever become to most memorable.

    He had seen memory losses and had seen concussions that caused the injured to enter a blank state similar to severe mental retardation. But Fell situation was different; His mind and mental faculties were untouched, but it seemed as though the person standing in front of him was a completely different person.

    Seconds quietly passed under the heavy silence basking the scene. Time seemed to come to a stop, as the past seconds turned into minutes, where Fell did nothing but stand without moving.

    The passing time caused the strange aura his soul released to turn even more apparent. His second realm soul cultivation base made the air around him warp as though thousands of invisible slow vortex had appeared around him.

    His confusion and ephemeral elusiveness were exposed around him as Sifiso''s sight of Fell turned even stranger. The next moment, the vortex stopped, and just as the Old Manager thought that the strange event would come to a stop.

    They intensified, with the vortexes caused by Fell''s soul accelerated, and before Sifiso even had the time to blink. Fell was long gone.

    "Crap!?", cursed Sifiso as his neck creaked toward several angles of the large room. But the Old Man found no sign of the young cultivator inside of the large reception hall near the coliseum''s entrance.

    "How fast did he progress?", he muttered as his fist was clenched tighter around the communication device held in his hands. The physical action caused by his stress reminded him of the object lying in his tensed grasp.

    "I need to call Old Moha!", thought the Old Managed as he was stricken by a fit of urgency. No individual could predict Fell''s action in the confused state, not even the old man that nearly educated him, but they could still try and find him through the shantytown.

    Sifiso hadn''t seen any sign of violence coming from Fell. But such a high state of confusion couldn''t be left unchecked, as outburstS were always doomed to happen when an individual lost sight of who he was. Especially at such ranks of strength, where the individual stood on a realm beyond mortality.

    Sadly, if such a scenario happened, New Casablanca''s fate wouldn''t have to wait for the beasts to face a fatal calamity. With his current strength, Fell alone was amply sufficient to turn the entire city into a no-mans'' land void of any soul.

    Thankfully, such scenario was far from being the current case, especially with the lack of anger dwelling in the current Fell. His thoughts were pure, and deep in his mind, he held each life in high esteem.

    The act of killing wasn''t something that bothered him, but without a reason, or a-sudden- bloodied mental breakdown. There existed absolutely no reason for the young cultivator to make that nightmare a reality.

    In fact, Fell didn''t leave the coliseum as Sifiso had thought, but was currently in its most sacred places. And as Sifiso made a call to the owner of the bar Pig''s Paw, Fell had made its way to the underground arena.

    Ol''Moha was currently closing his bar. He had just managed to throw the last hobo out of his boutique, and had prepared himself to close early like the past two days. A shudder traversed his body, as his instinct told him that he was needed something. A puzzling expression flashed on his face, as he had done everything he had to do lately.

    "Well¡­ I''ll go check on them.", he mumbled as he thought about the central district''s civilian that he had helped today.

    Ever since Fell had come to his working place to announce the incoming war, he had been making preparation for the accommodation of parts of the citizens of the main district. The act was difficult to pull-off, especially with the fact that the native of the Core had already expanded their land to the maximum of their capacities.

    Thankfully, his bright and agile mind had managed to find success in face of the short-timed conditions, and had made preparation for the main district''s inhabitant to be placed in the infamous Baby Cemetery. Through such accommodation, there wouldn''t exist any of the disrupting events that might happen if the two masses were instantly mixed together.

    Through the small contacts that might happen with the kids of the Baby Cemetery. It might later be possible for a true fusion of the two social- and geographical- group of individual.

    Those were the thoughts that came to the open minded Ol''Man''s mind as he saw the calamity descending on their city. He hadn''t seen any monster, but had seen the traumatized faces of a few soldiers. And some were even the fearless gladiator''s coming from the Core.

    "In the face of a deathly threat, a hobo or a pretty noble boy were in the end two similar chunk of flesh.", he muttered silently as his mind wandered during the way leading to the Baby Cemetery.

    Strangely, it was during these times that the man found himself facing questions that he would have never dared thinking. Impossibilities of the past that could now become a reality in front of the imminent calamity.

    "Who would have thought¡­", he whispered under the small smirk hanging in his face.

    He couldn''t help but ponder about the insane idea of nobles living in the dilapidated houses of the Baby Cemetery, making him think that these Times were the ones truly insane.

    Suddenly, the communication device laying his pocket twitched repeatedly, taking him out of his reveries as he responded to the incoming call.

    A smile appeared on his face as he recognized the voice on the other end of the line.

    "How are you doing, Old Fart?", he exclaimed with a brightened face as he continued walking through the narrow street.

    The receding sun in the sky, and the shallow light coming from the neon of the store sign''s caused his shivering shadow to follow his every step.

    The rhythmic sound of his footsteps slowed as he recognized the man''s tone behind the call. The shivering shadow gradually slowed down, then came to a stop as Moha''s figure turned into a rigid statue.

    "I''m coming.", he dryly said in a neutral tone that didn''t manage to hide his emotions.

    He turned around, and swiftly departed for the metallic coliseum laying in the corner of his vision. Urgency boosted his speed, as his healthy body began running through the empty paths of the shantytown.

    Contrary to the contagious urgency held in Sifiso and Moha''s hearts, Fell didn''t move from his position ever since he had appeared inside of the underground arena.

    He silently stood in the center of the sandy area, his confused state seemed to have calmed down under the intense, focused state he had entered when he basked in the ambient atmosphere of the arena.

    His soul turned into hundreds of small threads that searched every crook and nanny of the sand-floored arena.

    It was at this time that the young cultivator came to inadvertently learn one of the new capacities of his soul. And as he scoped the rough texture of every grain of sand with his soul.

    He came to learn- or feel- hundreds of information hidden in them. As too even if time flowed in one sense, everything that happened in the world would forever be hidden in the matter.

    He couldn''t exactly explain the strange act, but in a rough manner, it was as though his soul was capable of visualizing parts of the history contained in the large arena.

    Smells, noises, flashes of images, and pain, lots of pain flooded his mind as a metallic- bloodied- odor flooded his mind.

    Thousands of image flooded his mind, filling the absurd void existing in his soul. The moment the images of the past appeared, the confusion of his consciousness and soul eased as his mind was immediately attracted to the surrounding''s past in the same way a magnet would do to its counterpart.

    The paradoxical cooling effect produced by the flash of past''s bribes made the young cultivator escape the confusing effect.

    But that wasn''t the only effect that pushed Fell to continue scribbling through the history of the arena and was specifically due to the fact that he had caught sign of a familiar figure through the images of the pasts. And that was the Old Manager he had met earlier, Sifiso.

    "If I can find Sifiso, It might be possible for me to learn more about myself through this arena!", he muttered softly in a stroke of clarity.

    After that thought began a patient search through every grain of sand in the arena, every small broken nail and teeth that had mixed been grounded with the sand through the many years of usage.

    The arena had existed for as much as long as the times where the Core of New Casablanca had been turned into a shantytown. The disappearance of any ruler, or ruling measure, meant that the town was left to its own legislation.

    Sadly, the habitant of New Casablanca had chosen complete lawlessness and freedom of action; and obviously freedom of robbing your neighbor. In the middle of a nature-law driven society, the strong were soon venerated, and the insurgence of Gladiator''s Heaven rose in popularity inide the cradle of anarchy that the most centered part of New Casablanca had turned into.

    The authorities, and noble clans that had escaped in these years, had began the project of blocking the hoodlum-like Core''s progress with the emergence of the Factory District. Forever forcing the Core to remain block from the outside world.

    This part of the city might have been blocked from the rest of the world, but the world had nonetheless decided to drip its grey claw in the puddle of muddy water. Turning into a playground for the underground society of New Casablanca.

    The danger of living through the streets of the violent city had raised the popularity of the Gladiator''s Heaven to the peak. Gaze at the abyss for too long, and you become the abyss.

    Violence had now begun a casual entertainment that could be enjoyed by any citizen of the Core. Yet in a strange way, it was only through an organized violence, that everything could seem normal.

    Fell soon came to guess those facts as he gazed a the near infinite amount of information hidden in every particle of matter existing in the arena. Sadly, even if he felt himself approaching the knowledge he had lost.

    He came to a massive hurdle, and although he could sense that somewhere hidden around him existed bribes of his passage.

    The area surrounding the arena had existed for far too long, and contained a concentrated amount of history that made his small passage feel like a few drops hidden into an ocean composed of pieces of information about the past.

    "Even If I meditate here, I doubt that It''ll amount to any proactive result¡­", he muttered slowly as he felt himself little compared to the endless of time. He came to understand that his processing level was far too low, and that his soul cultivation was too lacking for what he wanted to produce.

    The youth''s face twitched, as he could sense that tears were appearing everywhere in his stretched soul energy.

    "But yet¡­ I want to know!", his eyes turned resolute as he decisively sat down on the rough sand laying everywhere in the underground arena.

    His thought focused on his soul palace as his vision was absorbed in the purple-red static hole in his mind. A minute crimson-purple colored dot appeared on the surface of his skin- near his eyebrows- as his mind connected with the ego body laying still inside of his Soul Palace.

    His soul sense was strengthened the moment he began focused on controlling his ego body. And the ego body''s translucent body seamlessly warped and reappeared in front of the small island where a small sapling could be seen glowing with vitality.

    It echoed and pulsated in rhythm, growing at the same time the massive Soul Palace was expanding in the void. And before long, Fell sat on the island and fully connected with the special sapling.

    The action was executed in less than a fraction of a second, and just as Fell connected his mind to his ego body, he retracted the stretched soul sense he was using to scrounge through the underground arena''s past. The next moment, a booming silent wave spread in the underground arena, and a massive phantom tree appeared behind Fell.

    The vibrant green leaves pulsed with life, and began moving as though a small wind had infused life force in every blade-shaped leaflet. That small windy movement expended past Fell''s surroundings and into the vast space that surrounded the sand-floored arena he sat on.

    Before long, the influx of information that had stopped resumed at a rate faster than he had ever achieved. Hundreds of images, smells, and sensations appeared in his mind. His face warped as the tremendous pain that accompanied the absorption of information came from small tears that appeared on his ego body.

    The ripping noise coming from the damage of his soul was accompanied by roars of the public. Cry and outbursts were coming from the thousands upon thousands of individual that had sit on these chairs.

    Finally, hidden among the sea of information appeared an image that causes him to immediately stop the action he had begun.

    He retracted the tree back to his soul, and gazed at the image that had just appeared in his mind.

    A black-haired youth, barely old enough to hold a candle in front of the strong gladiator.

    Yet on his face stood a defiant- near arrogant- smile that constantly hanged on his lips.

    He wasn''t taunting his opponents, but was directing his mockery toward the destiny he had finally caught a grasp on.

 Chapter 322 - Unfurling Past Part Three

    After the flashing image appeared on his mind, came the disappearance of the illusory tree as Fell stopped his connection with the mysterious sapling growing in his soul palace.

    He stood motionless in the middle of the vast arena, and continued looking at the void as he savored the after-taste of that flash of history.

    "I fought here¡­", he muttered slowly. He couldn''t be wrong about his own face and blood essence signature. A face could mature, and change with the passing of time, but blood essence would always keep the same origin. Even if one''s strength rose, and broke through the barrier of cultivation, the source of one''s cultivation wouldn''t change unless a drastic event happened.

    Fell might have faced a drastic event, but the hidden bestowal he had gotten had changed his sou, and only strengthened his blood essence, leaving its exact origin and quintessence unchanged.

    A few seconds passed, and the young cultivator continued looking at the arena, marking every speck of it in his mind with a golden inscription that consolidated the bits of the past he had looked at. And before long, he decided to leave the underground arena as he could sense something calling him inside of Gladiator''s Heaven.

    His interest toward the bribes of the past hidden inside of the arena lessened after confirming that Sifiso''s word had been correct. Especially when he could sense chilling intent laying in the distance.

    He stopped looking at the candled ceiling of the underground arena, and disappeared with a spatial step that made him go through the void. The young cultivator''s figure reappeared under a n.a.k.e.d tree that lonely stood in a small courtyard.

    Fell''s eyes were immediately attracted to the small house laying in front of the little tree. He had currently reappeared in the middle of the gladiator''s barracks, and the falling sun in the sky was retracting its warm luminescent touch from New Casablanca.

    By the time, Fell finally stepped toward the small house, the sun had mostly disappeared as the last ray from the burning celestial star left the courtyard, basking it in a cool atmosphere. As he moved, the wind followed his actions as the n.a.k.e.d branches of the solitary tree rustled dryly with its sudden movement. By the time the youth stepped through the door of the small house, the wind had turned swift as it screeched and made the tree''s branch wiggle hazardously.

    The fragile branches of the tree twisted in strange ways that threatened to make their small tensile strength fail them. Yet none of that happened as Fell entered inside of the room where he had meditated during his gladiator''s career.

    "This¡­", he muttered slowly as Soldier''s Fortune appeared out of the void in front of him. He extended his hand as the sword dropped in his soft yet firm grasp, while his sight was instantly attracted toward the hundreds of cold chilling fissure stretching everywhere in the small closed door area where he had lived.

    Soldier''s Fortune released a small screech as its glinting blade sharply vibrated. And in the same way, a bird would chirp, his sword released a low ringing noise that reverberated through the room.

    At first, nothing happened, but that didn''t make his sword stop as the semi-conscious bladed weapon continued communicating. The sound it releases weren''t produced with the intent to communicate with its master, as it had always been able to communicate with Fell in a thoughtless manner. And that, ever since he had been able to fuse with his sword into one entity.

    Ever since he had awakened, and had regained his body. The first thing that appeared in front of his eyes was the sword he was holding in his hand. And strangely, at the moment where its master''s memory disappeared, and his soul reborn anew, Fell''s sword had also awakened a nascent consciousness.

    Both newborn, and both a decisive result of Fell''s relentless pursuit toward greater strength. But even as both of the two entities seemed to have just appeared in the world, both, master and weapon, seemed to have been molded to be together.

    That sensation had appeared ever since Soldier''s Fortune''s cooling metallic grip had made contact with his palm. The muscle memory of years of training reacted to his fated weapon as he instinctively remade contact with his dormant sword technique, but most importantly, his intact sword intent.

    After the rebirth of his soul, his sword intent hadn''t weakened but had instead magnified as a touch of life and death seemed to have materialized in its core property. Added to the upgrade Soldier''s Fortune had received due to the powerful connection it had made with the Bestial Formation- absorbing slaughter aura during a seizable amount of time from the near limitless resource of the bestial army- even his sword path had ended up growing due to his loss of memory.

    Without any past constraint from a bias of knowledge, Fell fully trusted the instinctive sword style that seemed to have been ingrained in every string of muscle. He moved, and his hand turned into a ghostly whip that lashes dozens of times in the eight directions surrounding him.

    The metallic ringing released by Soldier''s Fortune intensified during Fell''s lightning fast motion, and even when he came to a stop, his blade continued vibrating in the same frequencies of the dozens of slashing techniques he had executed in one instant motion. His movements were absurdly fast to the point where his body seemed as though it had grown two other heads, and four other arms.

    He stopped for a few seconds, as his soul sense stretched across the room and felt every small sword mark he had left in these walls. It was in this very room that he had made his first steps in his sword training. The origin of his sword path could be traced back to this very place.

    Every mark existing in the walls seemed to confirm that to the entranced cultivator. He reconnected an old facet of Fell''s old consciousness and rekindled a dormant passion for swordsmanship.

    The dozens of moves he had executed landed on their respective marks. A few seconds passed, as the sword cry intensified, causing a change on the fissure Fell''s sword had targeted.

    Suddenly, a strange vaporous energy emerged out of the cracked stone, as a remnant- nascent stage- sword intent appeared out of Fell''s past habitation.

    The moment the small wisps of intent appeared. Soldier''s Fortune cry rose in pitch as the ringing intensified and caused the remnant wisps of sword intent''s to fly toward the metallic weapon.

    His face blanked as he was smitten by the vibrant passion hidden inside of those wisps of small intent. Each and every shred of sword intent- imprisoned inside of the walls of his past habitation- resonate with Fell''s past relentless intent. After Soldier''s Fortune absorbed that sword intent and transmitted what they hid from Fell''s mind.

    He found himself unable to refrain his body, as he once again moved, and began a long training session. In some sense, there existed no apparent benefit for him to reproduce every move he had produced during the first weeks of his sword path. But the sword intent that escaped through the wall was enough reason to go through that long process.

    Thankfully, with the instinctual sword technique ingrained in his body, he didn''t find it difficult at all to analyze the marks and deduce the move that had produced them. Adding to that, his current cultivation bases, he didn''t find it difficult at all to unleash dozens of different slashes and cuts in one fluid motion.

    Then, he would come to a stop, and let his sword cry at the same ''frequency'' as the attacks he unfurled. Following that would comes the small wisps of sword intent that would immediately dart toward Soldier''s Fortune after leaving the cracks in the walls.

    Each cycle took less and less time to execute for young cultivator, and under his current level, he soon ended up reproducing every single move he had executed inside of the small room. Less than ten minutes of constant movement and stillness had been spent ever since he had entered the room, but his body didn''t even break a sweat.

    He only felt himself his limb warm up lightly under his movements, and his constant dampened mood was brightened as he cleansed the darkness he had acc.u.mulated through his sword practice.

    A sigh escaped his lips, as he sensed his overall mood brighten after sensing the passion that had- once- embodied his body. The unstoppable youthful drive caused his hair to rise slightly, and even his muscles twitched from excitation as he entered a zone similar to Fell during his training.

    Inside of the small house where he had lived during his career, he hadn''t only learned more about his sword techniques, but had learned more about his old consciousness, about his past life as he could sense the hopes and emotion Fell had held during his first steps as a cultivator.

    To the new consciousness of Fell, the sword intent that were imprisoned inside of the hundreds of fissures became cheerful encouragement from his past¡ªrekindling the candle of the conscious that had dangerously threaded toward a hidden danger for every soul cultivator.

    For those who developed their soul through cultivation. For those who dealt with the matters of mind, the consciousness, and the ego. Losing oneself''s identity was the same as losing one''s path.

    Thankfully, the recent events in Gladiator''s Heaven were the same as Fell linking himself back to the past karma of his life. And in the end, had made him take a dramatic choice, one to accept it rather than to severe.

    He turned around, and began leaving the small house with satisfied steps. Time had slowly flowed ever since he entered his old habitation, and the night had already replaced the long nightmarish day New Casablanca had passed.

    The soft moonlight basked the small courtyard, and even infiltrated a small window hidden in a corner of the room. The moon''s soft touch caressed the fissure of the walls, before disappearing inside of the sword intent hidden inside of it; Leaving the room in permanent obscurity.

    "I can only go forward in this life¡­", he muttered as he got to understand more about himself. Even if one could say that living was only composed in the present, and the potential future, some would say that it was through the many layers of an individual''s past that a persona could indeed be found.

    The wind seemed to be granted life under Fell''s presence, as he began slowly moving toward the area near the n.a.k.e.d tree. His calm walk was contrasted by the fast-moving air around him.

    The changes in the atmosphere weren''t precisely caused by him, but by the weapon he was still holding in his hand.

    Soldier''s Fortune began producing a strong reaction after absorbing the small traces of will he had produced during his early days of training. And for the weapon that had absorbed an ungodly amount of slaughter aura and dark energy, this type of pure, positive, will caused a strange balance to happen inside of the semi-conscious metallic weapon.

    The red hue it had acquired after the mass absorption of sword intent lessened, and the air surrounding it turned warmer as the metallic weapon silently ringed as it slowly morphed into a higher state of existence. Threading upon its own sword path, one that was tightly interlinked with Fell''s own life.

    Sensing that changes were happening to the weapon he held in high esteem. The young cultivator decided to assist it, as he softly laid cross legged on the bare ground. Before long, he connected with his soul palace and released the strength hidden inside of the mysterious sapling.

    The next moment, a massive change happened to the small courtyard, as it soon hosted another tree. Albeit this one was bared with hundreds of sharp leaves that seemed to ring at the same frequency as Soldier''s Fortune.

 Chapter 323 - Unfurling Past Part Four

    Right after connecting with the sapling in his soul palace, the mysterious tree- once again- materialized outside of Fell''s body. As soon as he appeared, he illuminated the small courtyard with a sharp verdant glow that pulsed with vitality.

    "What is a sword intent?", he asked himself innocently as he pondered on the mysteries of the sword path. And as he fell deeply in an elusive thought string, he controlled sent his own sword intent through the sapling before sending it to his right hand holding Soldier''s Fortune. The sharp and constant influx of sword intent was magnified during its passage through the sapling, and by the time it attained his sword, the essence of that intent would have acquired a vibrant life characteristic.

    To the semi-conscious weapon he had, that type of life based sword intent could be deemed as the most precious nutriment it could receive. Not only would the life characteristic in it raise the degree of formation of the sword''s spirit, speeding a process that would usually only happen with weapon of higher tiers. But was also helpful for its master, Fell, who had now an ample time to analyze the life characteristic the sapling of strength had given to his sword.

    His eyes turned into slits, as his soul entered an autopilot mode where he would constantly generate a steady influx of sword intent. And during that focus, free time, his conscious- or soul sense to be precise- was entirely focused on decorticating the life element out of the sword intent released out of the small verdant sword-leaflet of the tree.

    The origins of the tree were still mysterious in Fell''s mind, as he knew that it was a tool used by the civilization behind the godly entities'' forces, but had nonetheless put his entire trust in it as it was the sole reason behind his survival. Without it, his soul would have continued disintegrating until nothing would have been left from it.

    Thankfully, with the sapling''s strength, he was capable of maintaining a constant influx of sword intent without feeling any feeling of fatigue appearing. Sadly, he came to soon understand that with the sapling at his side, fatigue would never be a hurdle he would face.

    And that soon came to be true, as time passed and the duration of his focus on the modified life based sword intent of the tree augmented. The sole difficulty he faced was the terrible amount of that came with each loss of mental strength.

    Strangely, the sapling didn''t immediately refill his mental batteries, but made it such that he would only be pushed through his limit before each refilling. Making it that even if he wasn''t specifically training, just the usage of his soul reserve ended raising his upper limit by a small margin each time it would be emptied to nearly a drop.

    That was where the relentless intent passed on by his old consciousness came to play, and constantly urged him to push forward without any hesitation. The relentless intent had mixed with the entirety of his purple expanse, and represented nearly half of his soul palace''s matter.

    "It seems as though the life element in the sapling''s version of my sword intent drastically reduces its destructive force¡­", he muttered slowly as he couldn''t understand how a soft based sword intent could exist.

    "Such sword intent must be a rarity in the cultivation world¡­". He added in confusion, as he was radically aware that for a soft intent like this one to be born, the swordsman would have to have followed the way of healing through his blade.

    A paradoxical path that would only be born under certain circ.u.mstances that couldn''t be forced by destiny. Yet strangely, he felt that such a strange path would heavily benefit his future progress in the slaughter-filled path of swordsmanship. In the end, the chilling yin birthed a twinkling burning yang in its cold gist. And the same was true for the opposite case.

    Space and time were two indistinguishable lines that couldn''t be separated, with Fell being the perfect example to this case. The spatial element that had fused with his soul, not only made him specifically aligned toward Spatial Laws but also made him more attune that the norm if compared to normal cultivators. And when it came to rare, difficult laws, such as the main governing one like space-time, then even a small advantage would end result in a massive difference of understanding.

    In the same way, the extreme yin birthed extreme yang, the sword path also seemed to be capable of that as under extreme slaughter might raise a blooming life from the bloodied puddle. In fact, the sapling''s vibrant life force came directly from the sea of slaughter inside of Fell''s soul palace, and made it possible for the mysterious tree to grow inside of a soul palace.

    This fact was unknown to Fell, but during his journey inside of the Gigantic Tree, one of the major components of the success related to the fusion of his ego body and the seed of strength was due to the perfectly hazardous- chaotic- balance the ominous aura- he had absorbed- and his own soul''s energy- fused with the spatial element- had managed to form during the unavoidable calamity.

    This strange, unexpected factor was what Thol''Yr had been looking for when he had tried speaking to the young cultivator. But in the end, the valuable information he tried looking for had caused him to lose the precious momentum of the battle, and with the last suicidal rush executed by Akainmhar. He had ended up giving his life to get revenge.

    "There seems to be some kind of way that makes the sapling capable of transmuting slaughter- ominous- aura into potent wood-type energy.", he thought as he felt that he was treading on the right track for the answer he was looking for.

    His progress continued smoothly with the advancement of the moon through the sky of the Core. And before long, a change began appearing as Soldier''s Fortune began morphing under the constant influx of life-type intent.

    The black mat colored steel of his sword receded quietly as it moved into a clearer color, and before long, Soldier''s Fortune soon turned grey before the changes related to its color stopped. But the changes happening to the sword, in general, didn''t come to a stop, as the sword''s pommel elongated slightly at the same time the grey colored blade turned longer and thinner.

    In less than thirty-minute, Soldier''s Fortune''s shape and color had drastically changed, becoming an entirely different weapon than befitted its owner''s current need. Each change that happened to its architecture was meant to make the sword fuse with its owner with an even bigger synchronization. And by the time the physical change moved from the exterior structure of the weapon to its intricate internal structure, another thirty minutes were added to the limitless river of time.

    The thin longsword glinted sharply as the new Soldier''s Fortune glinted sharply in the night. By raising the slenderness of the blade, not only did it give the weapon a water surface like cutting edge, but it had also raised its density to the upper limit.

    Fell''s eyes opened, freeing his mind for a few seconds away from the living-nightmarish task of comprehending the law related to life, and laid quietly on his lap. The new appearance of his fated weapon entered his eyes, causing his iris to turn into pinpoint as he truly found the weapon beautiful.

    As beautiful and fragile the weapon may have looked like in his eyes, the moment he regained the proprioceptive sense of his physical body, he immediately sensed the durability and the density of the crystal-like steel material his blade had turned into. His hand approached the- crystal shaped- bladed part of his sword, and softly brushed it with his fingers, getting a feel of his sword.

    A soft ringing tone spread through the silent courtyard- where the only other sound came from the rustling of the blade-shaped leaflet of the illusory tree and the n.a.k.e.d tree planted in the dirt- coming directly from Soldier''s Fortune.

    Suddenly, he grabbed his weapon in an attacking stance, and slowly moved his weapon through the air producing a near-silent but audible- weeping- noise that came from the air splitting in contact of Soldier''s Fortune invisible edge. Then in an abrupt manner, he raised the speed of his movement, and executed a clean swipe from his cross-legged position.

    At the same time, the illusory tree behind him released a tremendous amount of life based sword intent that was smoothly injected in that attack. Fell''s mind blanked as the life energy released by the illusory tree rose in intensity. Blooming everywhere in the deserted courtyard as a change happened everywhere around Fell.

    His sword slash didn''t take down any life, as even the n.a.k.e.d tree standing in his attack''s trajectory was left untouched during the performance. In the contrary, the life based sword intent was infused directly in the dried bark of the tree, and the next moment, life pulsed with potency through its crooked roots.

    The effect of his attempt took time to appear, but with the passing time, weed and herbs began appearing on the ground around the tree. Followed by a verdant color that vibrantly gave life and clothing to the n.a.k.e.d tree that seemed at the end of its life.

    The blooming effect of his life infusing attack didn''t stop there, and the next minute that passed in the courtyard could only be described in two words. A viral wave of life energy was induced by Fell through the deserted ground of the courtyard.

    At first, it was only around the patch of dirt surrounding the lone tree, but soon extended past it, and before long, the entire courtyard had been tainted with a vivid green color that glowed under the moonlight.

    "A sword can truly give birth to life¡­", he muttered slowly as his eyes glowed under the clear moonlight hue.

    He broke the connection he had with the sapling in his soul palace, turning the illusory tree standing behind him into glistening stars that made his way back to his body. He could sense that his sword had been overflooded with sword intent, and needed time to digest everything it had absorbed, especially when it had entered the last stage of the formation of a sword spirit.

    Step as these couldn''t be forced, and could only slowly happen with time. And in the same way, a fetus would need time to grow, the same was true for a sword spirit. After this cultivation session, he could already sense that Soldier''s Fortune''s sword spirit had already entered the last steps of its gestation. In the same way, his ego body took time to fully form, even as the master of the weapon, he didn''t know exactly when his weapon''s spirit would awaken.

    He decided to place Soldier''s Fortune near the sapling, planting it deep in the dirt of the small isle, right at the side of the growing sapling. And finally decided to move from his sitting position.

    Fell rose to his feets, and patted the dust that had acc.u.mulated on his body before departing from the courtyard. Before leaving, he turned around, and gazed one last time at the courtyard.

    When he resumed his steps, his face was marked with satisfaction as the image of the flowery courtyard would forever stay ingrained in his soul.

    "I should probably go back to Sifiso.", he muttered as he remembered the strange action he had done in front of the Old Manager. And just as the Old Man entered his mind, his aged figure appeared in the corner of the young cultivator''s sight.

    He turned toward Sifiso, and his body suddenly came to a stop as he noticed another figure. One that caused his soul to tremble as filial piety made him want to bow down in front of the figure at Sifiso''s side.

 Chapter 324 - Unfurling Past Part Five

    The sentiment that arose in Fell''s soul- when he looked at the man walking next to Sifiso- was a strange mix of respect and gratitude. Every inch of his soul reacted to the familiar stranger, and before long, his body was affected by that and could be seen noticeably twitching.

    The reaction was intense, but was thankfully short time as before Sifiso even had the time to lay his eye on Fell''s figure. The odd response ended up as swiftly as when it appeared. And Fell regained his composure without the arriving pair of individual having the time to notice anything.

    "Here you are Fell!", exclaimed Sifiso in a well faked bright tone. He looked at the entrance leading to Fell''s old courtyard, and couldn''t help but add with reminiscence. "Looks like you already headed toward the right tracks."

    Ol''Moha''s face tightened as he gazed watchfully at the young individual standing in front of him. Even the cold-hearted bar owner couldn''t help but soften as his gaze landed on the youth- he had come to consider as his true son.

    "This person was someone significant to you.", he added before noticing that his help wasn''t necessary. His keen sight didn''t miss the pair''s natural language, and the silence that followed his word was soon cut short by the idea of leaving the two of them alone.

    In the end, he knew that the person who knew Fell''s- past- life the most were Ol''Moha.

    "Due to the unexpected exodus. This Old Man have matters to attend to and will no longer keep you company.", he exclaimed in a neutral tone before departing from the barracks. His words turned into a silent whisper as his figure disappeared from the foster father and son.

    At first, none of the pair spoke a single word, as they seemed to be capable of expressing much more with their eyes. The nod they threw at each other was a firs to Fell, as little by little, he came to trust the history Sifiso had told him.

    "Let''s walk.", exclaimed Ol''Moha in shivering voice he roughly hid. "Showing you the streets where you grew up might help you find something.", he turned around as began walking in a hurried manner. As though he was the one who had lost his memories.

    Even his walk seemed to contain Fell''s own urgency about the confusing situation his soul was in. Obviously, he didn''t possess any cultivator sense, and didn''t know the exact detail of the young cultivator''s illness. But was able to feel that the young a.d.u.l.t standing in front of him wasn''t the same person as the cheerful lad he knew.

    Thankfully, Ol''Moha could sense that the Fell he knew hadn''t disappeared, as he had only lost his memory. His personality might have changed, but the youth standing in front of him released the same relentless aura Fell had acquired after he began his cultivation journey.

    "What are you waiting for?", Moha urged as he noticed that Fell hadn''t reacted to his word.

    The man in question didn''t seem to react to his word, and his facial expression was void of any movement. But his eyes glowed, and after looking at the apparent worry released by Moha- through his every actions- caused his lips to arch slightly toward the top.

    "What a kind man.", he silently muttered in utter respect toward the Core''s inhabitant watching him. He finally decided to move as he could sense the impatience in Moha''s gaze, and began following him out of Gladiator''s Heaven.

    During the travel out of the coliseum, they met Sifiso and greeted the old manager before leaving the popular construct. And less than five minute after they engaged themselves through the narrow street of the shantytown, they arrived in front of an area that Fell could only describe as lacking.

    The ground under their legs passed from a cemented- hard floored- area to a dry yet somehow muddy dirt that kept mark of every passenger. They walked through the uneven ground of the street leading to the Baby Cemetery.

    "This place is near the area when I met you when you were just a small toddler.", Moha explained the surroundings in a swift sentence. To the keen senses of the young cultivator, he quickly determined the man''s speedier rate of words as being hidden emotions.

    His gaze constantly darted toward Fell''s direction, preying the changes in his facial expression as they toured through the empty streets of the Core. He felt a heavy weight drop inside of his ribcage the moment he noticed that the roads weren''t causing any reaction to Fell.

    "Take it easy¡­", reminded himself Ol''Moha as he knew that trying to go too fast would only make things difficult. "The speedy ones always end up delayed due to their persistence to push quickly.

    The architecture of the streets changed, as they seamlessly warped through time with every corner they took. A curvy corner could hide centuries of architecture while only being apart for a few meters away from another style of building.

    They plunged deeply in the Core, and the narrows streets turned even more narrow and soon they had the impression of walking between mirrors as the steel made constructed consistently reflected their figures.

    If before, the building had some semblance of logic and cohesion, then the so called building in this area were nothing but pillars that held invisible roofs.

    And before long, appeared the twisted lands known as the Baby Cemetery. The ugliest and most infamous face of New Casablanca, yet one that existed for many years without ever disappearing.

    When one felt like he needed to abandon his newly gained responsibilities. They could come here, and drop their seedling in the most corrupted place of the shantytown. The children abandoned here were fought to fight for life, as even the rare resources and commodities given to them by the charitable souls couldn''t be perfectly split between every toddler leaving in the deserted area.

    Strangely, as they entered the infamous Baby Cemetery. What entered their eyes wasn''t a deserted area, void of any soul, but a bustling place that contained hundreds of individuals. The fact was that rare were the houses of this area that were gifted with complete set of walls, making it impossible for the pair of individual to miss the massive number of human living here.

    "This is where you used to live.", he exclaimed briskly while coming to a stop. As they entered the area called Baby Cemetery, a small toddler left his hiding spot and darted toward the pair of individuals with a nose full of murky green snot.

    "Stop there, little brat.", exclaimed Moha in a serious tone as his sight was directed toward the sneaking brat. "Even I don''t think my immunity system can tank the bacteria''s living with you.", he joked as he nonetheless took out a small chocolate bar from his pocket and threw it toward the kid.

    "Catch!", he exclaimed the moment he threw the edible black delicacy before disappearing from the sight of the excited kid. The toddler looked at his newfound treasure, and swiftly hid it in his pocket before anyone looked at it.

    His movements were done in a swift second, and after hiding the chocolate bar, his neck crooked left and right as he confirmed nobody saw his gains. A reflex, well ingrained, in his body, couldn''t even be hidden now that they didn''t have to worry about food.

    His face brightened as he couldn''t help but think about the surprise he would make to his sister. As right after they would have finished enjoying the delicious dinner- with the main district''s citizen living in their habitation- he would surprise her with Ol''Moha''s sweet gift.

    Minutes passed after Moha, and Fell made their way to the infamous- now bustling- baby cemetery. Their advance through the changed lands were accompanied with greeting coming from a few a.d.u.l.ts standing outside of the dilapidated houses.

    "What make you come back here this fast, Mister Moha?"

    "Come share tonight''s dinner with us!"

    Several invitation sprung toward the known man, but he declined every single one of them as his steps were clearly directed toward a specific house in the Baby Cemetery.

    "I''m busy at the moment.", he grunted in a refusing tone that couldn''t be denied. Yet the faces of the individual that sent the invitation didn''t turn somber, but in the contrary, had brightened even more as a few of those invitation were only a form of social interaction.

    The man they greeted was the one who had found this place for them to live. And without him, it was obvious that they would have faced many difficulties in finding a place where they could live. The Baby Cemetery might have turned them off at first, mainly due to the dilapidated state of the construction here and the presence of the near hundreds of children.

    But as the situation was one where they lacked any semblance of control on their destiny. Their resigned themselves to what life gave them, and had gladly accepted living in such a place. After being forced of their homes by fierce creatures, one would rarely find trouble with complacency and would most of the time see life in a down-to-earth manner. Obviously, not everyone from the main district thought like that, but as they choose to live here, they decided to hide their ugliness locked in their thoughts.

    "Usually, it isn''t this lively.", exclaimed Moha as he turned toward the silent Fell.

    The young cultivator nodded silently as his mind was focused on absorbing the ambient atmosphere. He might have lost his memories, but the first view he laid on the Baby Cemetery was one that reeked of positivity. Sadly, as he didn''t have any comparison, the young cultivator only found the place to be interesting.

    Before long, Moha''s fierce figure came to a stop, and with him, Fell similarly stopped. Fell turned toward the area locked by Moha''s sight, and a grand yet dilapidated mansion entered his sight. The walls of the decent-sized construct seemed to have turned into a piece of cemented cheese- containing hundreds of holes- under the influence of the passing time.

    "This was my home.", exclaimed Fell in a tone that made it difficult for Moha to understand if his words were a question or an affirmation.

    As the house was partially isolated inside of the Baby Cemetery, mainly due to the fact that it was constructed right at the end of an impasse, but also because the dozens of mansion that laid next to it had turned into mere dust piles.

    "Yeah¡­", exclaimed Moha before adding. "I mean, you have to consider this a house before saying that.", he jokingly exclaimed before going in.

    Fell followed his step inside of the mansion, and before he even entered through what should have been a door, he heard noises coming from inside of Fell''s old house.

    Dozens of individuals from the main district seem to have chosen this area as their current residence. But that didn''t bother the two individuals that soon made their way in one of the upper floors of the mansion, and more specifically, in the room where Fell had lived for the majority of his life.

    The moment he stepped through the broken wall of what he had called his room, and looked at the fabricated bed lying in the floor. His movements came to a stop as he could clearly identify signs of habitation in the room. Sadly, as the bed didn''t contain any of his will nor heaven and earth energy, he couldn''t directly confirm that it was his own. But Moha''s gaze, and his instinct screamed that this place contained his past.

    In the same way, every grain of sand in the underground arena held bits of its history, it was the same for the dust in the dimly lighted room of the dilapidated mansion where he had lived. Sadly, the only difference was that here, Fell didn''t exactly sense positivity but a painful sadness.

 Chapter 325 - Past Principles Part One

    The small room didn''t contain the same atmosphere imprisoned inside of the barrack, as he could feel that he had lived inside of this dilapidated mansion for a more extended period. Only his past consciousness knew how many times he had gazed at the cloudy sky from this beautiful spot.

    Ol''Moha sensed the strange mood Fell was in ever since they entered the dilapidated mansion, and decided to leave the young cultivator some time to spend alone.

    "Any plans for this night?", he asked as he slowly slid his way toward the door.

    He didn''t hear any response, and only sighed before disappearing from the corridor next connected to the small room. Fell could feel that Moha had made his way near the passage, but didn''t turnaround as the ambiance of the lone room completely absorbed him.

    Nonetheless, he knew that Ol''Moha was someone who had helped him numerous times for the young cultivator and managed to free his focus as he responded in a short chuckle. "I''ll stay here."

    Ol''Moha''s face changed, contorting slightly as he had hoped inwardly that the youth would want to learn more about his past. But, he still manages to regain his composure and only silently nodded before resuming his sneaky steps.

    Little did Moha knew that attached to his body was parts of the young cultivator''s soul sense. With it, he would never have to face the problem of asking direction to find Moha''s location, and that would stay true as long as he didn''t leave his range.

    He didn''t know the full extent of his range, but Fell was sure that as long as Moha didn''t leave the Core. Then, he had absolutely nothing to worry about, and could find his whereabout at any moment.

    After that, he stood silently in the room while basking in a different atmosphere. He couldn''t help but feel that this place was where Fell had slept for the majority of his life. The history of his passage could be seen in any corner of the room, only this time, it wasn''t seen through the many layers of time but through the clear signs of human occupation.

    In the corner of the room could be seen as a legless handmade desk that seemed to have been created from a strange mix between a drawer and a low table. It sat on the floor, and would have gone unnoticed in a normal individual''s sight, but the many layers of dust acc.u.mulated on its surface didn''t hinder Fell''s sight.

    Nonetheless, he didn''t choose to examine in closer and continued looking at the objects lying on the room. Everything seemed to have been made in a way that put functionality before luxury, a clear sign that the youth''s life hadn''t been easy.

    The mat only consisted of several blanked aligned one on top of the other that had hardened with time and usage. Now it only looked like a dry wooden board, completely uncomfortable for sleeping on top of it, but it didn''t seem to bother the youth that never cared about changing it.

    To be precise, this entire room had stopped being used the moment Fell had come to meet Anzar. As this place wasn''t too large, and thus wasn''t proper when his brother had been here; Especially when the mansion hosted larger room than this one, and a large hall equipped with furniture he had picked up on the street.

    Still, that didn''t mean that this room held no importance in the mind of the young cultivator, as it represented his entire life before the beginning of his cultivator''s path. Lot of things happened after that as more than three years have already passed since his encounter with Anzar, but even more events had unfurled before that.

    Event that lead him to the lucky encounter with Ol''Moha, and even before that, the long years where he had to survive alone. Feeding off from whatever he could, receiving small injuries everyday during these times, but thankfully, the rare kindness existing in the heart of a few made him survive nights where he simply should have died.

    Fell''s new consciousness didn''t know as he had lost all of his memories during the event that happened inside of the Gigantic Tree. He didn''t know how lucky he had been to survive through the misery of his first year of existence in the city, but could strangely feel it when standing inside of the room.

    A silent weep crept from a corner of his soul, but the young cultivator didn''t depart from this area despite the discomfort that took hold of his body. He resisted the negative feeling, despite the pain that came with them, simply because he could instinctively understand that the void in his soul couldn''t only be filled with the best part of his life.

    Ever since he had arrived in the Core, and gazed at the apparent difference existing here when compared to the main district. He had faced the harsh reality that he hadn''t been born in the best condition. Despite that, he had also noticed that his strength vastly differed from the other native of the city.

    That was the first realization that basked his mind. Even among the soldiers, he had only met cultivators among their leaders, and hadn''t met any other individual that held control of several energies like him.

    He innately understood that his case was rare, and that among the irregularity named the Core existed another deviation that should have never appeared. In the mind of the young cultivator, there wasn''t any memory of his encounter with Anzar nor anything else that could explain his innate knowledge about the three cultivation path he threaded.

    The only thing he knew was that he was one lucky star that glinted among a pile of carcass. And the moment he came to understand that, he felt that he stood closer to the truth related to his past. A short distance that seemingly didn''t seem as anything as he still couldn''t remember ninety-nine percent of his past, but that nonetheless made his fragile persona solidify.

    In the end, his soul was a nascent being that was supported by the sapling growing in his soul palace. Even if he wouldn''t lose control of his energy due to the sapling backing him, he could still lose his sanity and turn into something that the old Fell would never assume he would become.

    Thankfully, the small recollection he had picked through the day had managed to solidify the doubt he was having, and although he couldn''t say he knew his past, he now had a rough direction leading to who he was before.

    The itching sensation that came with the void in his soul didn''t come to a stop, but was lessened after the young cultivator began basking in the small room.

    At some point, his figure moved through the dark as he stopped when he stood in front of a shiny part of the wall. There, right in the middle of the intact wall, could be seen as a hole where the soft light from the moon came through. The small hole was a square-shaped windows where a constant smooth air current came from.

    "Ventilation?", he muttered softly as he gazed at the peculiar window.

    A few second passed before he moved, and Fell decided to sit on the dried stacks of blanket that served as a bed. And when he gazed at the opening in the hole, what entered his eyes was the tainted sky of the Core.

    A sky, completely tarnished by the filthy waste of the Factory District and that had forever stolen the chance of a starry sky appearing over the shanty town. But from the strange spot in the wall, what appeared in his vision was a clear part of the sky, untainted by any filth. The peculiar angle gave the young cultivator the opportunity to look at a view Young Fell must have looked at every night before closing his eyes.

    Minute after minute passed as he basked in the ambient mood of the room. A strange pulse silently echoed in his soul, slowly spreading through the rest of his body as a strange change happened to him.

    The atmosphere and the aura that usually surrounded a cultivator disappeared from his body. And before long, not even a speck of immortality could be seen from the exterior. He closed his eyes, and the final change occurred when he reopened them.

    The eyes were the same as before, but the emotion, and the hopes ingrained in them were completely different. The person sitting on the dry mat was the young cultivation, but when he looked at the particular spot on the wall, he seemingly turned into a ghost of his past.

    He silently sat in the same place, unmoving like a solid statue, only his gaze changed from time to time. But never moved from the particular spot in the wall, foverer hanging on the stary sky Fell used to look at.

 Chapter 326 - Past Principles Part Two

    Little by little, the aura he was releasing changed and passed from a cultivator aura to one where not even a single speck of his varied energy was sensed. From an external point of view, the current Fell looked like any other mortal from the city.

    Albeit, his gazed seemed slightly sharper, giving anyone who laid an eye on him that he had something strange in his gaze. A mysterious charm that would only appear on the face of someone who knew what he was doing.

    The young cultivator spends the next hour looking at the particular spot on the wall. With each minute that passed, a small change would occur on his facial expression, and his gaze would turn milder.

    Yet that mildness couldn''t be seen as weakness, because under the soft mildness was hidden a sharp voracity that wouldn''t hesitate during a decisive moment. The exact type of mentality the young cultivator was forced to mold into during his years in the Baby Cemetery. And also the same gaze that caused Ol''Moha to help the youth.

    The reason was simple. The mildness and kindness that could be seen through the eyes of the youth had been genuine, and caused Ol''Man to take the youth under him, making him work in his bar.

    That particular job had been a harsh one where Fell had to do tasks that couldn''t be assigned as being glorious, but he gladly ended up accepting anything that came his way. For the simple reason that he didn''t have anything better to do.

    "Moha gave me a sense of membership in this city. Something that never had a chance of happening, happened due to that encounter¡­," he mumbled as he understood that even without him embarking in his cultivation. He would have been a working native of the work, something that rarely occurred for those who grew in the midst of the Baby Cemetery.

    Flash of the past appeared in his mind as he reverted back to the time before he embarks in his cultivation paths.

    The night''s advancement didn''t stop under his elusive meditation. In fact, it was even the contrary, as in his sense, time seemed to accelerate. The starry sky entering his sight- through the small hole in the wall- turned into a rolling canvas of indescribable luminescent beauty. He couldn''t understand how, or why, but in this very specific place, his connection with his past deepened.

    His mind delved even deeper into the atmosphere of the room. And by the time the night had advanced to the point where the dark veil began veering to a clear grey, the state he was in even caused him to lose control of his own power.

    His thundering heaven and earth energy turned silent before disappearing completely from his meridian paths, and laid dormant inside of his dantian.

    The Crimson-Red hole in his head turned dim as his soul sense seemed to retract back inside of his body.

    And lastly, his body shriveled slightly, and before long, his bodily strength had reverted to the peak of the mortal realm. It wasn''t just the strength he could exert that lowered, but also the relative defense his bone and muscle had that turned weaker to the point where a bullet could deal fatal injury to him.

    By the time the sun rose, and began basking the shantytown existing in the heart of New Casablanca. Fell had passed from a second realm cultivator, to a complete mortal without any speck of energy.

    A complete change that could only be done with an innate decision of the cultivator''s heart. A seal that couldn''t be forced upon, and that couldn''t be broken, not even by Fell himself. The reason was simple, and was due to the fact that by sealing his three path, the youth had also sealed the memory related to his paths.

    The only thing that remained was a direction he could feel in the west of the Core. Ol''Moha''s position.

    The entire process of sealing his cultivation bases was a semi-conscious one. Half of the decision had come from Fell''s sentiment of knowing more about his past, while the rest was instinctively executed by his own soul.

    "I should go meet Moha¡­," he muttered as the small hole in the wall had turned into a yellow sun numbing his iris. He rose to his feet- with his joints producing popping sounds- and began moving his limbs around as he had been sitting for a whole day.

    As only a small part of his soul sense was awake in this state, he didn''t feel off due to the massive change of physical change and quickly adapted due to being in a peculiar state of mind.

    It was as though the void in his soul had expended into the entirety of his being; with the small flashes of the past, he had managed to discover turning into what composed his ''whole''. Although incomplete, it could be said that Fell had fully reverted to the state he was before he began threading a cultivator''s path.

    Growl!

    The sound of rolling thunder barked near the stomach of the young cultivator, and his hand weakly moved down his trunk as he meekly rubbed his abdomen.

    His face tightened slightly, as a striking hunger moved his entire being and forced him to move. "What is this hunger¡­," he exclaimed in shock as he felt like it had been weeks since he put something between his teeth.

    "I feel like I can eat the meal of an entire regiment!", he exclaimed in shock as the hunger sprang out of his body and controlled him.

    His figure turned into an arrow as he rushed out of the small room in a rapid dash. He moved through the corridor with large steps, and descended the twisting staircase with small jumps that skipped three steps in one go.

    Before long, he arrived near the reception hall of the mansion that was currently being used as a living room. And as Fell had rushed to the scene, and produced quite the loud uproar during his descent, the individual currently living inside of the mansion began gathering toward the reception hall.

    The citizens of the main district living in the mansion had spent the night in an uncomfortable situation where none of them had managed to rest for more than dozens of minutes. As soon as they closed their eyes, flashes of the stressful day appeared in their eyes. And even the one that tried passing the harsh hours with the help of liquor found themselves unable to quench their panic.

    Fell''s rapid movement came to a stop the moment he noticed the horrid faces on the top of bodies of the dozens of individuals standing in the middle of his living room.

    His face tightened slightly as he hadn''t expected to awaken them due to his movement, and due to his sudden pause, he felt trapped under their intense gaze. He immediately noticed the alerted tone in their gazes; one that soon calmed down when they saw it was one of them.

    Dozens of sighed echoed as the individuals stopped caring about the youth, and went back to their occupations.

    "Morning," he mumbled in a low tone that echoed due dawn''s silence. His hand crisply rubbed the back of his head as a dry laugh masked his facial feature.

    He advanced slowly among the dozens of individuals he didn''t know, and began looking for the spot where he usually hid his food. Strangely, his eyes darted left and right, but didn''t stop anywhere as he seemingly couldn''t remember its exact situation.

    An odd look appeared on Fell''s face as his mind blanked due to the paradoxical state induced by the incomplete execution of the method his soul was currently basked in. Seconds passed as he continued standing frozen in the middle of the living room. Before long, a woman seemed to notice him, and remembered where she had gazed at him.

    Due to knowing that the youth had been with Ol''Moha. She mistook him for the main district native that was part of a particularly late batch of people, and approached him with a polite smile.

    "Hello," her small voice appeared on his side as she moved her hand in front of him. "are you looking for something?" she added in questioned as she couldn''t see his facial expression as being anything else than that.

    She pouted slightly as she waved her hand with more vivacity, and finally did the young- black haired- man turned his puzzled gaze toward her.

    The muscles on his face tensed slightly as a weak response left his lips. "Yeah¡­," but before he could finish his words, a grumbling sound barked out of his stomach and resonated through the calm living room. As there wasn''t much furniture here, the sound turned into a long sigh that echoed through the large mansion. Entering the ears of every single individual present without missing any of them.

    Fell''s face turned red as the expression placarded on it flashed between self-deprecation and shame, before finally returning to a controlled one. And it was with a hardened face that he turned to the next-door type petite woman standing next to him, ready to explain his intense hunger.

    But before he even had the time to say a single word, he lowered his eyes and saw a rounded plate pushed toward him by the young woman. On her face was an amiable smile that sympathized with the youth standing in a daze.

    "You probably didn''t have the time to eat last night¡­," she muttered as the dazzling smile disappeared. It was replaced by an unsightly expression that could be compared to a grey firmament.

    Fell''s eyes didn''t notice the change of expression as his hunger controlled his body and made him snap at the plate. And it was with one fluid motion that took the plate from the woman, spun around, and sat the couch lying in the middle of the living room. The fluidity and the manner of execution made the woman jerk back a little; she gazed strangely at him as she couldn''t help but find that this youth was hidden between many layers of elusive strangeness.

    Sometimes, he seemed bright-minded, and the second after that, he would freeze still and turn into a blank statue that would only react to external phenomena; Such as food being presented to him while in a hungry state.

    She couldn''t exactly point her finger on what was off on the young man sitting in front of him, and after a few seconds of pondering, she simply ruled it as being lack of sleep. All of them were stressed out by the current event, and their mental health had been particularly fragile due to the sleepless night. And due to this simple reason, the woman stopped bothering herself about the side effect of the state of heart Fell was induced in.

    He munched the four small pieces of bread the woman had given to him in a few bites, and accepted the water she extended toward him. A long burp escapes his throat, soon followed by a long sigh of satisfaction that made the woman chortle slightly. Before long, the youth finally managed to gather his composure back and clasped his hand together before bowing slightly toward the woman.

    "That was nothing special,", she exclaimed while trying to stop his bow. But the young man''s spine seemed to be made of Diamond as she found herself incapable of making him move a single inch.

    He kept his stance for a moment before raising his torso upwardly, and assume a neutral sitting stance. A satisfied smile hangs on his face as the pain that came from his stomach was quenched slightly by the short meal. His mind regained some semblance of clarity, and his head turned toward a specific direction, one he could innately sense tilting toward the west of his position.

 Chapter 327 - Past Principles Part Three

    "Is there something wrong with that place?", asked the woman in confusion. She had seen him look toward that direction numerous times, even while gorging down the rough breakfast she had given him.

    "Not really¡­," he muttered slowly with a slight shortness of breath. Nonetheless, the odd expression he had on his face caused the woman to doubt his word.

    The youth noticed that and flashed a beaming smile toward her. Fell continued lying on the couch while conversing with the friendly woman, and only after dozens of minutes passed that he found the strength to leave the comfort of the couch.

    He rose to his feet, and began making his way through the reception hall with steady steps. Small shadows appeared from the corner of his visions, and the next moment, a group of toddlers flooded his surroundings.

    "Young Uncle!"

    "It''s the big brother from this week."

    Two brazen snotty nosed kid ran to his front, their dirty hand gripping at his clothes. A shy girl, hidden in the corner of the small group, and discreetly peered at the other individual from the district. As though she was afraid of the contemptuous gazes, they could potentially throw toward her.

    Her short life didn''t protect her from the harsh gazes from the inhabitant of the shantytown, and she didn''t hope for a better treatment coming from the even more stranger main district natives.

    During her shy spying, her sight crossed the direction of the pretty next-door sister sitting next to the couch; And immediately diverted her gaze toward another spot in the room.

    Sadly for her, the place where he had threw her vision in her last-second panic wasn''t toward her feet, but toward a peculiarly tired man. Under the fatigue, the middle aged man''s face had turned grim and was a clear mirror of the stress he was feeling inwardly.

    A small cry escaped from her mouth, immediately gathering the attention of the individual in the room. A heavy silence took hold of the large reception, but more precisely hang in the throat of the little girl.

    The grieving weep was soon followed by a string of heart breaking sob that caused a changed in the expression of the woman sitting near the couch. Distress flashed on her face as her stressed mind was contagiously affected by the little girl''s small cries. She rose from her seat, and approached the girl with the intention to console her but before she even had the time to approach the group of small natives of the Baby Cemetery.

    A warm hand patted the head of the crying girl a few time. The latter was surprised for a few seconds, and as she took the tiny hands covering her big eyes away, she saw a beaming smile appear in front of her.

    "Everything is good?" He asked softly as he made sure not to make the situation worst. But contrary to his tactfulness, the little girl reacted positively to his actions and returned him a shy smile, but nonetheless beaming.

    Without waiting further, Fell used the opportunity to flee from the scene as though he had stolen the treasures of the mansion. The spectators didn''t react much to the scene, and to be precise, only the woman that had fed Fell continued paying attention to the events. And even then, she couldn''t understand how the kids happened to be this familiar with main district natives.

    "What if¡­," she muttered in a near silent voice before finishing the end of that sentence in her mind.

    She moved her head left and right as she cleared her mind out of the confusion, and focused her mind on the group of children standing in a daze, right in the middle of the large hall. She approached them with an open stance, ready to numb her stressed mind with their company. Before long, only the children and the woman remembered the short passage of the black haired youth.

    After leaving the dilapidated mansion, Fell''s mind was brightened as he savored the state coming with having satiated his hunger. He couldn''t help but slowly hum a cheerful tone as he walked through the narrows passage of the Baby Cemetery. Before long, he met the few faces inhabiting these cursed lands, and couldn''t help himself but flash a polite smile toward them.

    A few individuals returned his greeting with large smile and beaming faces, while other didn''t even bother looking at his direction as they were too focused on the fear dwelling in their hearts.

    "Lot of new faces have appeared around here," he muttered as he couldn''t help but finally noticed that the Baby Cemetery hosted many more people than last night.

    "Well¡­ I guess it is good for the small orphans," he added before falling silent during the rest of his travel through the Baby Cemetery.

    The moment his feet left the dry muddy ground of the Baby Cemetery, and began moving on the crooked pavement of the other parts of the Core. Less than ten minutes passed, as he took his time in touring through the streets of the city.

    Compared to last night, many more people had made their way out in the streets. And even the usual drunkards that were still wasted at this time of the day were strangely sober. Some looked at him without having second thoughts, while others seemed to recognize him through his features. Every time the later event happened, he would always made the first move and interact with the person first.

    In three or four streets, the amount of time he came to a stop and began short discussion with random passerby had rose past the two digits. And his antics didn''t seem to stop as he took particular enjoyment in that. Particularly toward one specific man that jumped toward his hand, he grabbed it in a tight shake before vigorously expressing his gratitude through a rapid repetition of up and down movements.

    The man in question was a clear faced junkie, and without a doubt was the same one that had given direction to Fell when splitting apart from Leove after meeting the armed forces'' leaders.

    "Bruv," He exclaimed oddly with a mouthful of spit flying through the air. Fell didn''t even deign to avoid the speeding bits of saliva, and find himself obliged to accept everything coming toward him. "I can''thank ya enauf fer yest''dey'' magik!"

    Fell''s facial expression tensed as he felt chilling small pearly dots connect with his face. But the man''s words caused him to be confused as he couldn''t understand what ''magik'' he was talking about.

    His eyes glinted with a strange light as he opened his lips while distancing himself discreetly.

    "What kind of magic?", he expressed succinctly with an apparent curiosity toward the sober hobo''s words.

    "De cool chillin''one my frien''," he ended shortly as his eyes rose toward the clear rising sun in the sky. "I stil''feel sum effect¡­ V''ry effective¡­", he muttered as he repeated soft ''yes'' several time in a row before recollecting his mind. Only to find that the youth he was speaking with was an even strange oddity than a sober junkie.

    He caught sign of the black patch of darkness in the corner laying down in the street. And less than a few seconds, before he even came to understand what the man was doing, he saw Fell''s figure disappear further down another trail.

    "Wa''ta volat''le boi!" Exclaimed the hobo in a crooked mutter.

    Fell continued passing through one street after another as he made his way toward a very specific direction. As he moved through the streets, a small change happened to his soul as memory began slowly filling the void of his soul. He was still incomplete and his current state of mind was a far cry from being considered a complete set of memory, but was nonetheless in a constant state of progression.

    Every interaction he made, every small talk, and every inch of the Core that entered his sight made the process his soul had orchestrated further even closer to completion. The process in question was a risky one as it fully sealed his three cultivation paths in exchange of an opportunity to fix the innate flaws of his soul.

    To cultivators that always needed to push forward toward the future. Not having a past was the same as lacking an anchor of the mind, as it could easily be seen from the reaction Fell had when he failed his attempt of stopping the Bestial Formation. If it was Fell''s past consciousness that would have faced the Bestial Formation, he might have faced hurdle even harsher than the one the current Fell had faced.

    But even then, even if he abandoned his attempt and retreat to the city, his mind and ego wouldn''t have taken such a hard hit.

    Thankfully, as soon as he arrived to the Core, the strange void in his soul had slowly started filling. At first, it had been filled with Fell''s undying pursuit of greater height and with the passion that was born with his sword path.

    Then what came after it was the less joyful part of his memory, but that still caused him to feel inner peace when regaining them. Those memories were the ones related to his life growing inside of the Baby Cemetery, only the current set of memory was a completely different Baby Cemetery as the infamous place was now being used as inhabitation for the main district civilian.

    Although the houses and overall view and surroundings were the exact same as the one existing in his lost memory. The one he currently had were completely different, as they basked in a completely different atmosphere due to the new presences.

    His journey continued through the streets of the shantytown. With every single minute spent here was filled with new encounter that put Fell''s mind in a particularly good mood. If he had to be honest, he wouldn''t say the encounters themselves were making him happy, but that it was the fact that he was constantly gaining anchors for his flawed soul.

    The elusive progress of his memory recovery continued steadily with every street he crossed, and before long, he found himself standing in front of a wooden store sign. The fashioned wooden-sculpted board was loosely hang on a set of nail, and a pig''s paw was shallowly inscribed on it. His eyes moved toward the metallic door, and noticed a small pinkish colored pattern that roughly represented a shape similar to the paw of a pig.

    Without further hesitation, he stepped toward the door and opened up as a small but comfortable looking bar entered his eyes. Even this early in the morning, small noise were acc.u.mulated into an annoyingly cheerful hubbub that completely contrasted with the drastic atmosphere underground.

    As the armed forces prepared themselves to face the fierce and highly dangerous army of creatures. The shantytown''s native joyously numbed their soul with harsh liquor at the first light of the day.

    A broad shouldered man saw the new arrival, and couldn''t help but jerk slightly in the middle of his movement. He swiftly swiped the glass of window he spilled on the wooden bar, and spoke to one of the woman working in the current shift, asking her to take care of serving clients before Moha began making his way toward the standing still Fell.

    "Want to drink anything?" exclaimed Moha as he felt that Fell was old enough to hold his liquor. He couldn''t help but remember the times where the black haired youth used to work in the local bar, barely able to feed himself decent meals every day. But now, he not only grew in height and stature, but also in overall presence.

    Yet strangely, as he gazed at Fell, he felt that something had changed since last night, and that the youth standing in front of him resembled the small child he had helped in the past.

 Chapter 328 - Past Principles Part Four

    After the question came a quick serving, and before long, Fell faced Ol''Man Moha with two glasses of liquor separating them. If at first, the only thing rhyming their silent sips were the echoing rambles of the drunkard. Fell was the first one who broke the silence, bitterly commentating on the quality of the liquid.

    "Quite harsh.", he muttered as an unsightly expression flashed on his face. "Where did you get this booze, old man?" he asked after swallowing a delicate mouthful that made him choke in a virulent cough that seemed to be easily transmitted between the person that shared the strange opaque liquid.

    A dry chuckle escaped from Moha''s lips, and the short laugh couldn''t help but quickly escalate into strings of endless laughter as he caught sign of a red hue in the youth''s eyes.

    "You really can hold your own," he finally managed to add in the midst of his laughter.

    He rose from his seat, and grabbed the two glass in his hands before looking deeply at the youth''s eyes. "I''ll take care of this thing, and I''ll make sure to come back with something delightful," Moha added in one go before disappearing in the direction of the counter.

    Fell followed the paternal figure disappear in the shadows lurking in the dept of the bar, and before long, he found himself sitting alone in the middle of the bar. Even this early in the morning, it couldn''t be said that the bar was void of any soul as every minute that passed would be accompanied by a constant flux of people entering and leaving.

    The intoxicating addiction that followed them through their lives seemed to hang tightly around the back of their mind, as even this early in the morning, none of the natives would refuse a smooth and bubbly beverage.

    Finding himself void of anything to drink, the young man began looking at his surroundings with curiosity. It could be easily seen from his constant shifting vision- toward the numerous seats of the bar- that the man wasn''t accustomed to sitting on the customer''s side.

    Small specks of memory appeared in his mind. Memories of a void past that seemed to continually shift from a distant whisper, to a clearly audible reality. Even a random place could cause Fell to remember small bribes of his past. One could only expect the change that would happen due to this specific place.

    The bar he was currently in was his first- ever- working place, and the first area in the Core where he had felt that he was part of a society. Albeit a hazardous and depraved one. But that didn''t change the core form of his thinking.

    A place where an individual felt a specific type of belonging would forever hold that feeling, even if year passed and the sky on top of their head swapped with the cold earth. Even such drastic change wouldn''t be enough to completely suppress the feeling of belonging Fell held toward Pig''s Paw. As his entire being felt a strong link toward this specific bar.

    A few seconds passed, and the passing time soon acc.u.mulated into minutes where the young man solely basked in the morning atmosphere of the bar. A bar that seemed to turn into the morning reunions of several small crews that clearly knew each other.

    Mean mockery and burlesque travesty turned into morning cheers that lightened the heavy mood in the city. One familiar face after the other showed up, with Fell finding trouble in recognizing every single one of them. A few, he felt as though he had met them in the corner of the street- right before coming to the bar- while others, seemed to have been acquaintances for years.

    The sole problem was that he couldn''t even put names or identity on the familiar faces. In fact, what he felt familiar wasn''t their faces, voices, or any physical feature, but more specifically, the ambient atmosphere they released as a group.

    And as Moha left Fell alone for a few minutes, the young man basked in a strange mood where he contemplated the atmosphere of the bar in a silent focused gaze.

    Sounds of footsteps took him out of his reveries, and when he raised his head toward the direction of the counter. He saw Ol''Man Moha''s beautiful face traverse the room with a pair of identical glasses.

    Thud!

    The pair of drinking recipients were dropped on the table at the same time, and only produced one singular sound. And what entered Fell''s eyes when he approached the cold beverage was a crystal colored red liquid that whiffed in the air.

    "Try this one," Moha exclaimed as he pushed the glass of red liquid toward his past protegee. And without waiting for him, he grabbed the small crystalline cup in a careful raise before approaching his nostrils.

    "This is some rare whine. And not any whine, but one that had been produced in this very city when it wasn''t in such a ruined state.", he muttered as he slightly raised the tail of the cup and softly delivered a small mouthful toward his sipping lips.

    Oh!

    Fell''s eyes opened soundlessly in the surprise. The young man was in a particular state where the past history represented a lot to his mind and soul. And the types of liquid such as this one- that held history through their aromas- represented much more for him than a story from the ancient.

    The black haired youth mimicked the beautiful face Moha sitting in front of him. And before long, what entered his mouth wasn''t simply a tasteful liquid that contained the work and experience of its creator, but the history and the atmosphere of the shantytown before the grand depravation.

    "Good S***!" cursed Moha as he slapped his thigh in one swift movement that nearly shook the table. He raised his eyes toward Fell, and fell silent as he noticed the strange state the youth seemed to have shifted into when he held the pearly glass of crimson liquid.